Ghosts in Sunnydale
by Kree Minory
Summary: Danny finds a hole in the Ghost Zone and gets pulled through it. The Scooby Gang finds a portal in the high school and they close it. Danny gets stuck in Sunnydale. -Complete-
1. Chapter 1

After fighting the Lunch Lady, Skulker, a bunch of ghost birds, and the Box Ghost, listening to his parents yelling at him about dissecting him "molecule by molecule" as he fought the ghosts, failing his math test and getting lectured about how he's failing some (ok, most) of his classes, Danny decided to fly around the Ghost Zone to try and relax.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw something that seemed out of place. Flying closer, he saw portal out of the Ghost Zone. Curious, he went closer…and got pulled through it.

"What?"

"There's a portal in the basement of the school," Dawn repeated.

"Really?" Giles asked.

"What did it look like?" Willow asked while Xander leaned forward.

Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles and Dawn were sitting in The Magic Box, discussing the portal Dawn found in the high school's basement, while Anya ran the store.

"It was green and kinda swirly," she answered.

"When did you see it?" Giles asked.

Dawn paused.

"Did you skip class to go down to the basement?" Buffy asked.

Dawn shuffled a bit, then said, "I just wanted to check on Spike."

"Dawn," Buffy started, "I told you not to go down there during school."

"Yeah, because there could be some big, evil thing down there, I know," Dawn interrupted. "I just thought you'd like to know," she huffed.

Willow leaned over to touch her shoulder. "We are glad you told us about it," she said.

"So what are we going to do about it?" she asked, excited about helping.

"_You_ are going to do your homework," Buffy jumped in.

Dawn looks over to Xander pleadingly.

"Hey, if Buffy says do your homework, you should do your homework," he said.

She sighed and left.

"Even though we didn't do our homework when something happened," he continued when she was out of earshot.

Buffy glared at him. "There was no one else to do it."

He held up his hands in surrender. "I was just saying," he said quickly, as Giles got up to search the shelves.

"So, what did she want?" Anya said abruptly as she joined them.

"She found a swirly green portal in the basement," Xander answered.

"Are you sure she said swirly and green?" she asked.

"Here," Giles set down a medium stack of books. "Look through those." He picked up a couple and sat down.

Danny looked around. He was in some sort of storage place, if the number of boxes was anything to go by. After deciding to stay invisible, he flew around. Several minutes later, he determined that he was in the basement of someplace. Before he could phase through the floor and find out where in the world he was, he saw someone.

Moving closer, he saw that it was a man with pale hair and a scar over his eyebrow. Suddenly, the man looked in his direction.

Danny froze, then, remembering that he was invisible, moved closer.

"Who's there?" the man asked.

Danny paused.

"I know you're there," the man went on. "I can smell you."

Startled and confused, Danny flew up and phased through the ceiling.

Spike was sitting near his "apartment" in the school's basement when he sensed something. He looked in the direction the feeling came from, and took a deep breath through his nose. Something was there alright.

"Who's there?" he called. Silence. "I know you're there," he continued. "I can smell you."

He heard something like a light wind from the direction he was looking in, and rushed over. Finding nothing, Spike looked around the basement, but couldn't find any evidence of someone having been there, aside from Dawn several hours earlier. Then he saw a swirling green portal.

"I've got to tell Buffy," he said.

He looked out and saw that there was still a little too much sun. He sighed and headed for the sewer entrance.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny hovered over the school, invisible. After flying around the city for a while, he'd found a sign saying "Welcome to Sunnydale, CA." If the sign in front of the school was anything to go by, he was in Sunnydale. I didn't know there an entrance to the Ghost Zone here, he thought. Maybe it was a new one. He looked around at the growing shadows and decided to do a quick check for any ghosts before going back through the Ghost Zone. He might even be home in time for dinner, knowing how late his family sometimes ate.

With that thought, Danny flew off to make sure there were no ghosts plaguing Sunnydale.

The sun was setting when Anya asked, "Did you say she said swirly and green?"

Giles looked at her from the counter where he was just sending another customer on his way. "Yes," he said as he walked over and took off his glasses. "Does that mean anything to you?" He asked as he wiped them on his shirt hem.

The back door to The Magic Box opened and Spike came in.

"There's a swirling green portal in the school's basement," he said.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Dawn already told us when she stopped by after school," Xander said.

"Oh," Spike said, moving over to a bookshelf. "Have you found anything?"

Anya glared at him. "Are there any ghosts in the basement?" she snapped at him.

"Ghosts?" everybody asks.

"Yeah, I saw a portal once, a couple of centuries ago," she said, "when a spurned wife wished for her husband to be haunted by his mistakes. A swirly green portal opened up and a bunch of ghosts came out."

"Wait," Xander interrupted, "We're dealing with ghosts? Things we can't touch and can barely see?"

"They seemed to be able to touch things to me," Anya stated. "And they weren't that hard to see. Their neighbors all moved away, and they tried to exorcise them or have priests exorcise them. They were quite determined to stay."

"Let's take care of this before we have anymore ghosts here," Buffy said. "Willow."

Willow looked at Buffy.

"Do you think you can close the portal?"

"Yeah," she answered. "I'll look for a spell right now." Willow pulled out her laptop and started searching.

Danny flew back to the school quickly. He had found no ghosts and no ghosts had found him. All in all, the evening had been entirely uneventful except for the weird man in the basement.

Night had fallen completely, and he hoped his parents wouldn't give another lecture about the ghost boy and how dangerous it was to be out after dark. He also hoped that they hadn't invented something that they wanted to show off.

Just before he flew into the school, he saw a group of kids loitering around. Before he could think about it, his ghost sense went off. He sighed and headed towards them.

Sure enough, there was a ghost there. But something was off about it.

He hovered above them and listened a minute.

"Hey, isn't this that cat that got run over yesterday?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, they said it died on impact," another answered.

"Are you sure it's the same one?" a third asked.

"Yeah, it has the same markings on it. See?" The kid picked the cat up by the tail to show his friends. The cat yowled in pain.

Danny saw that it was a grey cat. It had a white crescent moon on its forehead and black paws. One of its ears was tipped with black, while the other was tipped white. It also had a black crescent on its chest.

The cat yowled louder when it saw Danny, who was hovering above the group, quite visible.

Danny sighed, wishing his luck had held out long enough for him to get home, then descended to land among the group, arms crossed over his chest.

The kids look at him in fear and amazement.

"Don't you know better than to play with wild cats?" he asked. "You never know when they could have some contagious disease."

The kids backed away quickly, dropping the cat as they went.

The cat scrambled away from them and Danny picked it up. It purred at him, and butted its head into his chest.

Danny turned them both invisible and flew away from the kids, glad that that had gone smoothly. For once.

"I got it," Willow said.

The others looked up at her.

"Can you do it?" Giles asked.

Willow nodded. "It's easy."

The others nodded and they all grabbed their weapons. Things rarely went smoothly, so it was best to be prepared. Soon they were heading into the sewer passage to sneak into the school.


	3. Chapter 3

Danny was examining the cat. After flying away with it, he had looked at it to make sure it was alright, and found a gash on its side. So he's stopped and pulled the cat away to check it over. After pulling out its claws and talking to it, telling it what he was doing, it had calmed down and allowed him to examine it.

It was covered in scrapes, had a couple of nice gashes, several bruises, maybe a couple of broken ribs and a broken tail.

"Well," he said when he was done. "I guess you'll be alright in a few days." He paused as he looked into its eyes and saw understanding there. "Uhh," he said. "Can you, um, understand me?"

The cat nodded and purred. Then it flew out of his arms.

Surprised, Danny took a step back, reaching for the thermos.

Before he can touch it, though, the cat touched Danny's forehead with its nose. It purred louder and there was a flash of light before darkness overcame his vision.

The last thing he heard was a meow and a voice saying, "Thank you."

The cat looked at his savior in surprise. After he had given him the ability to understand him, he had passed out. That was not really very surprising.

No, what was surprising was that as he'd passed out, a ring had appeared around his waist and separated, one going up and the other down, changing the boy's appearance as it went.

He was surprised to see that his savior was not only a fellow ghost, but also a human child.

Curiosity aroused, the tom descended carefully to the ground, and curled up next to the boy, eager now to see how he would react when he woke.

Spike came out first, followed by Buffy, Willow and Xander, and Giles. Anya was staying at the store until it was time for it to close.

"Where is it?" Buffy asked Spike.

"Over here," he said, leading the way.

In the "room" next to Spike's "apartment" they found the portal, a swirling green jagged opening a couple of feet above the floor.

"Willow," Buffy gestured.

She nodded and came forward, setting up for the spell while the others took up stations around the room, in case something went wrong.

Danny groaned as he sat up. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was Fenton, and hoped that no one had seen him change. Looking around, he saw the ghost cat he'd saved laying curled up next to him.

"What did you do?" Danny accused it, not really expecting a reply.

The cat seemed to grin. "I gave you the ability to understand me," he said.

Danny stared at it in shock. "You what?"

"I gave you the ability to understand me," the cat repeated. "So that I could thank you properly for saving me from those children."

Danny continued to stare at him for a moment before remembering the time.

"Crud!" he exclaimed, transforming.

The cat tilted his head. "Something wrong?"

"I'm going to be late for dinner," Danny replied and carefully grabbed the cat before phasing both of them through the floor.

Once in the basement, Danny looked around for the portal.

"What are you looking for?" the cat asked.

"The portal to the Ghost Zone," Danny answered, phasing through a stack of boxes.

The cat starts, surprised. "Why?" he asked.

"So I can get home, duh," he replied. Suddenly he stopped, hearing something. "Shh," Danny whispered to the cat and went invisible and intangible. Then he flew through a wall and stopped dead.

What the heck was going on here?


	4. Chapter 4

Willow had started the spell to close the portal, and so far nothing was going wrong. Instead of causing them to relax, the group became more tense.

"So," Xander asked Spike, "What did you smell?"

"What?" Spike turned to look at Xander.

"Before you found the portal, you said you smelled something," Xander said.

"That's right," Giles joined in. "What exactly did you smell?"

"Heck if I know what I smelled," Spike growled.

"What it smell like?" Buffy jumped in before the others started hurting each other.

Spike paused. "It was sort of a dead human smell," he started.

"Another vampire?" Xander asked.

"No," Spike growled. "If it was a vampire, I'd have said 'I smelled a vampire,' not 'I smelled something dead'."

"Anything else?" Giles interrupted, taking off his glasses.

"Well, now that I think about it," Spike muttered. "It also sorta smelled alive."

Silence.

"How can something be dead and alive?" Xander asked.

"Right here," Spike pointed at himself.

Xander opened his mouth to say something, but was beaten to it when Spike said, "It's here."

Danny hovered just above the floor, the cat in his arms. In front of the portal, a young woman with brown hair was saying something in a weird language. There was another one, with blonde hair, standing near her holding a sword and three men standing a short distance away. One had dark hair; one was holding a pair of glasses in his hand, wiping it on the hem of his shirt. The four not speaking in a funny language seemed to be arguing about something when he recognized the third mans as the guy he'd seen a few hours earlier.

At that point, the guy he recognized said, "It's here."

The four whirled into positions surrounding the portal and the brown haired girl sitting in front of it, and the one put his glasses back on.

"Where is it?" the blonde girl, the one with the sword, asked.

"I think it's over there," the guy said, pointing to the side of Danny.

The blonde girl, who was closest to Danny, stepped forward, swiping with her sword.

Danny didn't move, figuring that it would go right through him. He was very surprised when it didn't. The sword bit painfully into his side and he involuntarily cried out.

Buffy stopped the sword, surprised. She wasn't expecting to hear a kid scream.

"What the heck?" Xander asked turning to look at Buffy.

"Why'd you stop?" Spike also turned around.

"What is a kid doing down here?" Giles wondered.

Buffy pulled her sword away thinking, _what if it's just a kid playing around with magic and he doesn't know what he's doing._ After all, it had happened before.

"Willow," she said without turning around, "please hurry and close that portal."

She nodded her understanding and continued.

Danny stared at the group before him in disbelief. They were closing the portal to the Ghost Zone? He quickly looked at the portal and saw that it _was_ smaller than when he'd come through it.

Quickly, he flew around the blonde and at the portal, hoping he could still make it through.

Before he reached the portal, Danny hit a wall of energy, similar to an ecto-shield, that prevented him from entering the portal and threw him forcibly back, over the blonde girl and into the wall.

The four turned in surprise when they heard something from the portal. They were in time to see a white haired boy in a black and white outfit hit the energy field around the portal and be sent flying back over Buffy and into the wall. They also saw a cat thrown a couple of feet away from the boy.

"What the bloody heck!" Spike exclaimed.

The boy shook his head as though to clear it before looking up at the group.

Danny shook his head quickly before looking at the people in front of him, closing the portal and his way home.

He stood shakily and glared at them. "Why are you closing the portal?" he demanded.

They stared at the boy in surprise. They hadn't expected him to stand so quickly after being thrown, and they definitely hadn't expected him to demand to know what they were doing.

Xander quickly stepped forward. "We're just having some fun, pretending to do magic," he said, hoping that would be enough to put the boy off.

"Riiiight," the boy rolled his eyes. "So you're only pretending to close this entrance to the Ghost Zone," he said sarcastically.

Surprised, Xander stepped back.

"You know what that is?" Giles asked the boy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the ideas, Zii Raevyn, but I'm writing _way_ ahead of where I'm updating for breating room so I can keep my promise of weekly updates. Of course, you did guess where I was going really well. However, I will give you this:**

**"Suuure. And I'm a purple back gorilla that has fairy wings and sparkles like Edward Cullen," Danny replies sarcastically.**

**"Gah! It is evil!" Spike runs forward and tries to decapitate Danny only to have go intangible before the sword reached him.**

**The halfa raised an eyebrow at the vampire. "Do you seriously not get sarcasm?"**

**Enjoy the story!**

"You know what that is?" the older guy with the glasses asked.

Danny stared at him like he was an idiot.

"No," he said sarcastically, "I'm only pretending to be a ghost, and I'm not trying to get home."

The guy with the black hair, that had tried to put him off, said, "No way. Ghosts aren't solid, like you. I mean, you just got slammed into the wall!"

"If I'm not a ghost," Danny said, "why am I glowing?" He gestured to his body. "How did I get into this room without you noticing?"

The guy opened his mouth to respond when the one with glasses interrupted, "Xander, do drop it."

The black haired guy, Xander, closed his mouth, grumbling.

"If you're a ghost," the guy from earlier said, "how did Buffy's sword hit you?"

The boy looked surprised for a moment, before recovering from the unexpected question. "I was tangible," he replied after a moment of silence. He shrugged. "Can you get her to stop closing my way home?" he asked, changing the subject as he pointed to Willow.

"Your way home?" Buffy asked cautiously.

"Yeah," the boy sighed. "My way home. You know, I came through it to get here, I need to go back through it to get home."

Buffy and the others looked at each other uncertainly. Finally, Giles said, "We can't stop the spell now. There might be a rebound."

Danny stared at them. They weren't going to stop closing the portal? Because of some rebound? How was he supposed to get home tonight if they didn't stop?

He looked over at the portal. It was less than half the size it had been when he'd come through it earlier. There was no way he was going to just give up on going home.

Everyone took a step back when they saw the boy's eyes glow brighter. A green glow strangely similar to that of the rapidly closing portal behind them.

"If you aren't going to stop," he said, rising into the air, "then I'm just going to have to go through."

Buffy stepped forward to intercept him and the others moved back to protect Willow, who was almost done with the spell.

The boy's hands began to glow a similar green as well and he flew forward. Buffy swung the sword at him and he swooped down, dodging it, then flew _through_ her. She felt cold where he passed through her.

He went above all of them, then looked down at the portal, green energy flying from his hands.

Danny threw ecto-blasts at the energy around the portal, hoping to make a hole for him to get through so he could get home. He sensed the people around the girl trying to attack him, but he phased right through their attempts, aiming at the portal.

He saw a small hole in the energy and raced for it, still throwing his ecto-blasts at it, before he ran through the hole.

The group was surprised when the ghost boy hadn't gone for Willow, but that didn't stop them. When they saw him let loose with the green energy, Spike swung the sword he'd borrowed at him. Giles fired his crossbow and Xander swung his axe.

Buffy watched and saw that the boy wasn't aiming at Willow. In fact, he wasn't aiming at any of her friends, just at the energy around the shrinking portal.

Suddenly, he increased the amount of blasts and flew straight at the portal.

Just as he got there, the portal closed and there was a flash of green light. The group heard a heartrending cry.

"No!"

Willow had finished her spell, and the ghost boy was gone. They were alone in the basement.

**I will work on making my chapters longer, this was just the perfect place to stop.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I am _so_ sorry. I was busy all day and had to keep an eye on stuff. I wasn't able to get to the computer until now to update. Please forgive me for that.**

The Scooby gang all went to Buffy's house. Spike had opted for staying behind and keeping an eye on things.

So they scattered themselves around the living room to talk about what had happened in the basement.

"He seemed kind of weird for a ghost," Xander said.

"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts," Giles replied.

"I do!" Xander exclaimed. "I just don't believe that they're that solid."

Giles and Xander argued while Buffy looked at Willow.

"Willow," she asked. "Were you listening?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He was upset that I was closing the portal."

"He wanted to go home." Giles had heard what Willow said.

"Why would he want to go home?" Xander asked. "Aren't ghost supposed to haunt people on this plane?"

"Maybe he's not a normal ghost," Buffy suggested.

They all looked her.

"He didn't attack Willow to stop her spell," she continued. "He attacked the energy around the portal."

"He tried to get through the portal without us noticing he was there," Willow said.

"What?" Xander asked.

"He tried to go through the portal invisible, but got thrown away by the spell," she explained.

"Who got thrown away by what?" Dawn came downstairs.

"A boy," Willow started, but Buffy interrupted.

"A ghost got thrown by Willow's spell."

"Really?" she asked. "What kind of spell? Could you see right through him? I bet you couldn't touch him."

"I was closing the portal you told us about. But apparently that kid got through before we got to it."

"We didn't know he was a ghost until he said he was one," Giles answered one of her questions. "He looked normal enough."

"Except that he glowed," Xander pointed out. "And he had green blood."

"What?" Buffy asked after a moment of complete silence.

"You remember, Buffy," he explained, "when you cut him with your sword."

Buffy nodded.

"Well, I looked at his side while he was talking. His blood wasn't red. It was green. Maybe he's an alien!"

"If he's an alien, why would he say he was a ghost?" Willow argued, causing Xander to be quiet.

"Besides," Giles said, "Anya told me more about her first encounter with those ghosts she summoned in response to a wish. She said that they did glow a bit, though it wasn't noticeable in the day. When the man shot them, they bled green. They were also visible and tangible most of the time."

Buffy nodded, filing away the information.

"Have you cleaned your sword yet, Buffy?" Dawn asked, reminding the group that she was there.

Buffy looked at her sister. "Why?"

"Well," she sat on the couch, "If we had some of his blood or whatever, we could track him down, right? Or summon him with magic."

Before she could go any further, Willow interrupted.

"No," she said. "No, I am not going summon him."

"Why not?" Xander asked. "It's not human."

"But he was human," Giles answered. "Ghosts are the essence that is left behind after a person dies. Not everyone becomes a ghost, of course. But they should be treated with some respect."

"Why?" Dawn asked.

"They could make you miserable for the rest of your life," he said simply. "And they could do a lot more to you, than you could do to them."

"But I want to see a ghost," Dawn pouted.

"Maybe we could visit a ghost town or something," Buffy started and Dawn looked hopeful. "When we have the time to do so," she finished.

Dawn stood up. "Then that's going to be never," she grumped and stomped upstairs.

Buffy sighed.

"Can I see your sword?" Willow asked, once she was sure that Dawn was in her room and wouldn't hear.

"What for?" Buffy replied, surprised.

"Just in case," she answered. "I have a feeling about that kid." She stopped, at a loss for how to explain the feeling she had.

Buffy just nodded and handed her the sword.

The three of them watched Willow wipe some of the strange blood off with a scrap of cloth that she then folded carefully.

"I'll hide this in my room for now," she said. "And I'll move it to the Magic Box tomorrow."

The others nodded.

After that, they felt they had done what they could for the night and went their separate ways. Giles and Xander left to go to their own homes, and Willow went upstairs to hide the scrap of cloth with the ghost boy's blood on it and to go to bed. Buffy got ready for vampire patrol, and spent the next several hours walking around Sunnydale's graveyard(s).

**Ha! It is longer!**


	7. Chapter 7

Danny woke to the sun on his face. Startled, he opened his eyes and sat up, looking around.

He was in an alley, on a mattress at the top of a pile of trash. Confused, he looked at his side and saw a mostly grey cat curled up. Danny stared at it for a minute before he remembered what had happened with the cat the night before. He then looked around the alley again, taking in more detail. He had been forced to transform in several alleys before. Actually, probably in most of them in Amity Park. But this one seemed to be kind of big for Amity. Then he remembered that he'd just missed the portal before it closed.

"Crud," he muttered, putting his head in his hands. "I am going to be in so much trouble when I get home…"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have come through the portal in the first place," the cat said.

Danny jumped, surprised.

"You didn't forget about me, now, did you?" he grinned. "Because that would be really rude of you. Just like how you dropped me in the basement. And how you seemed so determined to leave me behind when you tried to go home." His tail was twitching as much as it could while broken.

"Uh," Danny started, "Sorry?"

"I forgive you," the cat said graciously. Then he started washing himself.

Danny watched it for a moment, before trying to figure out how to get home. He really didn't know where Amity Park was compared to Sunnydale. He could go to a library and find a map if he had to.

But what was he supposed to do with the cat? He could leave it somewhere, drop it off in the Ghost Zone somewhere, but it seemed determined to stay with him. Maybe he could leave it with Frostbite? The cat probably wouldn't like the cold too much, though. Princess Dora? She was rebuilding and probably didn't have time to look after a pet of her own, never mind someone else's.

"Dang it!" he said, frustrated. The cat watched him mutter his thoughts in amusement. One thing was certain, he definitely wasn't going to be bored with this human.

Danny sighed and rubbed his head. "Could you pretend to be a normal cat?" he asked after another moment of thought.

The cat tilted his head to one side. "Why? I could just hover over your shoulder, invisible."

Carefully picking him up, Danny replied, "If you want to follow me around, especially when I get home, it would be helpful if you could pretend to be a normal cat. Or at least," he jumped from the mattress, "if you could pretend to be a normal ghost cat."

"Why?"

"My parents are ghost hunters-"

The cat laughed. "Are you serious? That's hilarious!"

"Yeah, I get the irony," Danny muttered. "Could you quit talking to me?"

The cat looked hurt.

"Normal people don't like it when they see people talking to themselves," he explained.

"You're not talking to yourself, you're talking to me."

"Normal people don't understand cats, or talk to them all the time."

"Fine," the cat grumbled.

"Thanks," Danny nodded and walked out of the alley.

A certain floppy-eared demon, who had, of course, only heard Danny's side of the conversation, thought it would be a good idea to inform a certain Slayer, quickly left the alley through a secret door.

Buffy was working at the Double Meat Palace when her friends came in.

"Hey Buff," Xander called, "You on break yet?"

"What's up?" she asked.

"Someone stopped by the Box earlier," Willow answered. "We thought you might want to hear about it."

Buffy nodded. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes," she told the other guy on register duty. He just nodded and she went to a booth with her friends.

"So what's up?" Buffy pulled off her hat as she sat down.

"Clem came by," Willow said.

"He said that he'd seen a boy with messy black hair in the alley near the demon bar talking to a cat like it could understand him," Giles continued.

Buffy looked back and forth between them. "So, we have a kid playing with magic," she said. "I'm sure Willow can take care of that."

"The boy said something about ghosts."

"Oh," Buffy said after a pause. "Well, I guess you guys should go look for him. I should get off in a couple of hours, so we'll regroup at the Magic Box then."

The others nodded.

"Before we go," Xander said. "How about lunch?"

Buffy groaned and they followed her to the counter, chuckling.

Danny was wandering the town, trying to look like he belonged, when a hand came down on his shoulder. He looked up, startled.

A black man in a suit stood behind him. "What are doing, son?" he asked.

"Um," Danny said and the cat meowed, "Tell a good lie!"

"Why aren't you in school?"

"I'm visiting from out of town…"

"You can do better than that!"

"Who are you visiting?"

"An uncle. An aunt. Oh, an infirm grandparent!"

"Uh…"

"Why don't you come with me," he turned Danny around and pushed him gently forward, "and we'll get you into class for today. Then you can tell me what you're doing here, and why you're carrying an injured cat around."

"I'll be fine in a day or two, nosy!"

"Alright…"


	8. Chapter 8

**I am really sorry about how late I've been updating. I need to keep an eye on people and such, so I'm really glad to have remembered at all today. Even if it is just a technicality.**

**I am soooo sorry. I didn't realize I did this. Please forgive me.**

**Also, thank you everyone who noticed that chapters 8 and 9 were 6 and 7 and said something about it. Otherwise, I don't think the next couple would make sense.**

Willow was looking around the alley that Clem had mentioned. He'd said the boy had been sitting on a mattress before he left the alley. On the mattress, she found some blood. Hoping it was the boy's, she cut out the part of the mattress with it. She also found some green spots, and cut some of those as well.

After that, she didn't find anything else in the alley. So she muttered a spell, hoping to be able to track him. She was pleased to see an energy trail, presumably the boy's, leaving the alley. Quickly, she set out after it, hoping he was close.

Xander was looking for the kid at the mall, figuring this is where he'd go to meet others, or to look for books and supplies. At least, he thought that a novice would. Anya was keeping an eye out for the kid at the Magic Box, so they had that covered.

He quickly discovered that this wasn't going well, so he decided to check The Bronze in about an hour. It was going to be a long couple of hours.

Giles, scouting the magic shops and demon bars, found nothing pertaining to their current search. He did, however, overhear a witch say something about summoning a dragon princess. And that his competitors had a couple of things his shop didn't.

So he spent some time finding out where they got it from.

After they got to the school, the man took them both into the principal's office and sat down at the desk.

"So, why are you carrying that cat around?" he asked.

"He, uh, was a gift from my sister," Danny said. "And he ran into some kids a while ago that beat him up."

"I'm sorry about that. What's his name?"

"Um-"

"Shade."

"Shade."

He looked at them like he knew something was up. He sat there quietly for a moment and Danny was ready to run out of there when he spoke again.

"I think, I'll have you shadow one of my students," he said. "Just for today. Then you should talk to someone about getting home."

Danny blinked in surprise. He'd fully expected to be chewed out when he realized the guy was the principal. Instead, he was offering him a day.

"What about my cat?" he asked. "I don't think he'd be welcome in class, but I don't want to just leave him…"

"You can leave him in the main office. I'll get a basket for him, and the secretary will look after him while you're in class."

"Alright," he agreed gratefully. "Should I wait here?"

"No," the principal laughed. "I'll walk you there. Just go to the hall, and I'll let the secretary know."

"Okay." Danny left the office after handing Shade over.

Once in the hall, he put his hand on his side, over the cut from the sword. He hoped it hadn't seeped though his shirt.

Principal Wood watched the boy leave his office after handing him the cat. Then he went over to his secretary with the cat. He told her to ask a janitor for something for the cat to sleep in, and that he'd find something for it to eat soon. Before he left he asked what class one of the students was in.

Then he joined the boy in the hallway and they walked through the school to the math hall. He couldn't help but notice that he limped a little and held his side when he thought he wouldn't notice.

He hoped she would help the poor kid. He was probably homeless.

"What's your name?"

Danny glanced at him, startled, before answering. "Danny."

Principal Wood nodded. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Where are you from?"

"Amity Park."

"Really?" he paused and looked at Danny.

"Yeah."

"The ghost capital of America?"

"Yep."

The older man realized that he probably wasn't going to get anything other than one word answers from the boy, so they walked the rest of the way in silence.

Soon, they stopped in front of a classroom. The principal motioned for him to wait before he entered the room.

Dawn looked up from her work when she heard the door open. She was surprised to see Principal Wood standing in the doorway. He went over to the teacher to talk to her for a moment and she looked out the windows to the hall. There was a boy standing there with messy black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with a red circle on the chest and jeans, both of which looked worn.

He was also studying the room as much as she was studying him. She wondered who he was.

"Miss Summers," the teacher called her.

She turned forward quickly. "Yes?"

"Principal Wood would like to speak with you in the hall for a moment."

"Alright." Surprised, she got up and hurried over.

After she left the room, Principal Wood closed the door and motioned her and the boy away a short distance.

"Dawn," the principal began, "I was wondering if you would do me a favor?"

"Sure," she answered, curious.

"Danny here," he gestured to the boy, "Is visiting from out of town. Would you mind if he followed you to your classes?"

"That's fine," she turned to Danny and offered her hand. "I'm Dawn Summers, nice to meet you."

Danny shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, too."

Principal Wood nodded. "I'll send a message to your teachers, to let them know that they will have an extra student today."

Then he led them back to class and let them in. "I'll see you later then," he said before closing the door. Dawn went back to her seat and noticed that there was an empty chair next to her seat. She wondered about the boy that followed her, as she tried to get her mind around the lesson.

Willow sighed in frustration. She had followed the spell for as long as she could, but had lost it in the crowds after about twenty minutes. She checked the time. She had a little over an hour, so she decided to check some of the local covens that met at this time of day.

**Oh my gosh, the chapters are getting consistently longer. **


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm fixing them both at the same time. Does this make up for screwing them up?**

Danny followed Dawn out of the math class. It had been so long since he'd been able to sit through a whole class without some kind of interruption that he'd actually tried to understand it. _Maybe I'll be able to do some homework when I get home_, he thought hopefully.

"Did you understand any of that?" Dawn asked him, hoping to strike up a conversation with him.

"Not really," he answered honestly and slightly wistfully. After all, he doesn't really spend a lot of time in any of his classes. Awake, it at all.

She looked at him weird before some other kids came over and started talking to her.

"Did you hear what happened last night?" one of them asked her.

"No, what?" she replied, hoping it wasn't about Buffy.

"Some kids were here after dark," another said, "They were torturing a cat when a white haired boy floated down and rescued it!"

"Are you serious?" she asked.

Danny winced at the mention of the cat.

"Who's your friend?" a girl asked Dawn.

"Oh," she said. "This is Danny."

"Hi Danny," the girl sidled up next to him. "You have any plans for after school?"

"Uh," Danny glanced at Dawn with a pleading look in his eyes.

"He's coming with me to the Magic Box," she said, inwardly laughing at his desperation.

"Too bad," the girl said and walked away.

The pair then hurried to Dawn's locker.

"Thanks," he said when they got there.

"No problem," she answered, throwing her math book in and digging around for her history one. "She was being annoying."

Then they set off for their next class.

"What's the Magic Box?"

"It's a magic store. They sell real magic books and ingredients for spells. My sister and her friends hang out there. Her, uh, mentor sort of runs it, but…"

"Sounds kinda cool."

"It is. I'm sure you'd like it. Chances are you'd get along with at least one of them. Everyone does. Except for Anya, but she hardly counts."

Danny chuckled with Dawn as they went into their history class. Dawn was really looking forward to being able to question him better at lunch.

Buffy hurried to the Magic Box after cleaning up after her shift. She hoped that the others had found something about the kid that Clem had seen. When she got there, she saw Anya at the counter, Xander sitting at a table, and Giles coming in from the back.

"Where's Willow?" she asked.

"I don't know," Xander looked up. "But the kid's not at the mall, and hasn't been to the Bronze."

"He hasn't been to any of the magic shops around town," Giles said.

"There haven't been any black haired boys carrying cats in here at all," Anya interjected over the counter.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Everyone looked up at Willow, surprised.

"Where were you?"

"I've been checking some local covens," she answered, "Not many of them meet this early, they prefer to meet at night. But I checked the ones that do meet this early and they haven't seen him anywhere. They said that they'd keep an eye out, though."

"Alright."

"I think we have something more pressing at hand," Giles said. Everyone looked at him. "At one of the shops I went to," he explained, "I heard a witch saying something about a dragon princess she wanted to summon."

So the Scooby Gang turned their attention to figuring that out instead.

Danny followed Dawn into the lunchroom somewhat reluctantly. He didn't have any money, so he didn't figure he'd get any lunch.

"Come on," Dawn had pulled him after her when he'd told her. "If nothing else, you can share mine."

When Danny followed her reluctantly to the lunch line, one of the lunch ladies handed him a tray.

"But-"

"Wood told us to feed you, so feed you we will," she interrupted.

"Thanks." Danny was surprised, and very thankful. He hadn't had breakfast.

"No problem."

So Danny happily filled his lunch tray, and followed Dawn to a table, where he was almost instantly swarmed by students wanting to know the new kid. Dawn mentally smacked herself for forgetting that such a thing was likely to happen.

"Where are you from?"

"What's your name?"

"How are you liking Sunnydale so far?"

"What was your old place like?"

"Where are you living right now?"

"Do you have any plans for after school?"

Danny sat stunned for a minute, before doing his best to answer the questions being fired at him.

"My name is Danny. I'm from Amity Park. Seems like a nice enough place. Crazy. Uhh," Danny quickly lost track of the questions he was being asked.

"Hey!" Dawn shouted. Everyone turned to her, like they hadn't even realized she was there. "Give the guy a break. Let him eat his lunch."

After much subsequent grumbling, Danny and Dawn were left mostly alone, since some of the more determined were also sitting at the table.

"Thanks," Danny told Dawn. "I'm really not used to that."

Dawn smiled. "I don't like big, mobbing crowds that much either."

"Did you say you were from Amity Park?" she asked after both of them had started eating.

"Yeah," Danny answered.

"The ghost capital of America?"

"Yeah."

"That is so cool."

Danny looked at her in surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Don't you think so?"

Danny gave her a wry smile. "Not particularly."

"I mean, you get see something that lots of people don't believe exist."

"A lot of the time, I wish they didn't."

"Why?" Dawn was sort of surprised. It wasn't like they really attacked people, right? Most of the time when they appeared, only property got damaged, according to the news.

Danny stared off into space, searching for a good answer while remembering every bruise, cut, scrape, and other injury he'd received at the hands of all those ghosts. All the walls he'd been thrown through. All the times he'd been electrocuted or kidnapped. What could he say that wouldn't give her a reason to call the GiW?

"Well," he started after a moment. "See, my parents are ghost hunters."

"Oh." Dawn had watched him, and had seen something change in his eyes while he was thinking. Something that reminded her a lot of the Scooby Gang when they tried to talk about magic stuff to normal people. "I guess you don't get to spend a lot of time with them then, huh?"

Danny looked at Dawn when he heard the sadness in her voice. He gave her another wry grin. "Actually, I get to spend more time than I'd like with them," he told her somewhat truthfully. If they didn't want to tear him apart molecule by molecule, or shoot at him, he might enjoy fighting ghosts with them.

"Really?" Dawn was surprised. "But don't ghost show up a lot?"

"Daily," Danny turned his attention back to his lunch.

"Then how do spend so much time with them?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, some ghosts show up during school hours, at school, which brings my parents there. And after school, they show us their inventions and equipment. Sometimes, when the stuff actually works, they teach us how to use it."

"That is so cool," Dawn said wistfully.

"Don't you do stuff with your parents?" Danny asked.

Dawn's face fell. "No," she said. "My mom is dead, and I live with my sister."

Danny winced. "I'm sorry," he said. "That was rude."

"It's okay, you didn't know," Dawn said resolutely. "What kind of stuff do your parents make?"

"Well," Danny replied. "They made the Fenton Ghost Portal, the Fenton Thermos," here he pulled his out of his pocket, "the Boo-merang," and he spent the rest of lunch telling Dawn about his parents' inventions.

After spending a couple of hours hashing out what to do about the witch, Willow brought up their earlier concern.

"Do you think she'll use that kid to help her?"

"Maybe," Giles said after a moment. "Should we try to find him again?"

"I found some blood on the mattress," Willow said. "I could use that to figure out where he is."

"Do you want to do that here, or at home?" Buffy asked.

"I have what I need at home," she answered. "Besides, there are a couple of other things I wanted to check at home."

"Alright, let's go to my house and take a snack break," Buffy said.

With that, everybody got up and, with the exception of Anya and Giles, went over to Buffy's for a snack.

**Does the fact that tomorrow I will be adding a new chapter make up for screwing up and uploading 6&7 twice?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Again, I am _reeaally_ sorry for what I did with the last two chapters. I hope this makes up for it, you get to read practically three new chapters at once!**

"Finally!" Dawn said as she made her way through the crowds to her locker, with Danny right behind her, marveling that the school day seemed shorter when he wasn't worrying about any imminent ghost attacks. Or fighting ghosts. Or looking for somewhere to transform. Or-

"Are you ready to go?" she asked, grabbing a couple of textbooks from her locker.

"Yeah."

They were just about to leave the grounds when Danny smacked his forehead. "I forgot something inside," he said, and turned to go back in.

"What did you forget" Dawn was surprised. She hadn't seen him take out so much as a pencil in any class. And he'd put his thermos back in his pocket not long after taking it out to show her.

"My cat," he winced as he moved against the crowd.

"You brought a cat to school?" she asked as she followed.

"Not on purpose."

"How can you not bring a cat to school on purpose?"

"I didn't know I would be coming to school," Danny paused, back inside the school. "Where is the office?" he muttered.

Dawn smirked. "Follow me."

Soon they were in front of the office. Danny's ghost sense went off, but he ignored it, since it was only going off because of the cat.

"Are you okay Danny?" Dawn asked, concerned, when she saw his breath cloud for a moment.

"Yeah, why?" he replied, surprised.

"I just saw your breath!"

Danny hurried into the office to avoid answering.

Dawn followed after a moment, confused.

The first thing she noticed was a cat on the secretary's desk, yowling at Danny. It looked injured as it lay there in a paper tray on rags. At least, it did until it stood up and scratched at him when he tried to pick it up.

"Ah, Dawn."

She turned to look at the principal, who was standing behind her.

"Yeah?"

"Will you step into my office for a moment? I'm sure he's not going anywhere anytime soon," he smiled at her, gesturing at the boy trying to touch the cat without getting clawed and failing.

Dawn walked into his office and sat down as he closed the door behind them.

"Could you take him to Buffy?" he asked, with no preamble.

"Why?" she asked, surprised.

"I think he could use her help," he replied slowly, thinking. "He seemed to be injured earlier, but trying to hide it."

"I saw his breath just before he came in," Dawn said after a pause.

Wood nodded. "Tell Buffy. This is more her thing than mine."

"Alright."

Danny was having a tough time with Shade, who was mad at him for almost leaving him in the school.

"You idiot!" the cat yowled at him. "Were you having that much fun that you forgot about me? Again?"

Danny shook his hands to take away the sting from his new scratches.

"I'm sorry, alright?" he said.

"Why do you keep forgetting about me?"

He saw the cat's eyes beginning to glow, so he grabbed him, ignoring the claws, before he did something stupid to give him away, like fly. Headless of the new scratches he was getting and the tears in his shirt, he looked around for Dawn.

She was coming out of the principal's office, with the principal right behind her.

"How was your day, Danny?" he asked. He kept looking down at the cat.

"It was nice," Danny winced at a particularly well aimed blow on the cat's part.

"Would you like me to…"

"I'm sure he'll be fine once we get outside."

"Alright, then Danny," he patted Danny on the shoulder in farewell.

"'Bye." Danny hurried out the door.

"Goodbye Principal Wood," Dawn followed Danny out the door. She was surprised that he was nowhere in sight.

Danny flew down the halls to get outside as quickly as possible so he could drop the cat. Once he was in front of the school, he set the cat down.

"Cut it out!" he cried as Shade started to hover to get to his face. "Or do you want to be found out?"

Shade stopped hovering, but kept yowling and clawing him.

"That's it, you're walking," he said as he stepped back from a vicious swipe.

"You sure can run fast."

He looked up and saw Dawn coming out to meet him. He winced as Shade took advantage of his distraction and slashed his ankles. "I got plenty of practice," he replied.

"We have a first aide kit at home," Dawn looked at his hands and arms. "If you wanted to take care of that first."

"That'd be great," Danny jumped Shade before he could bite him. "Shall we go?"

Dawn laughed and took the lead.

Earlier in the day, Willow had done her locating spells in the living room.

"That's weird," she'd said.

"What is?" Xander asked.

"Get Buffy."

"I'm here," Buffy said as she came in from the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Watch."

They had watched as she pointed to the mattress fabric with blood. The pendulum hovered over the school.

"Okay-" Buffy started.

"Keep watching," Willow interrupted, and pointed to the scrap with green on it.

Again, the pendulum hovered over the school.

She pointed to the fabric she'd used to clean Buffy's sword. The school.

"That is weird," Xander said.

"Isn't it?" Willow asked.

Buffy thought for a moment, then said, "Why don't you try this again later?"

"What?" Xander asked, confused. "Why later?"

"If we wait until after school," she explained, "then we can check out the school if they're still there. And if they aren't-"

"Then it won't really matter because we can track them anyway," Xander finished.

"Exactly," Buffy smiled.

"Then I'll take these with me to the Magic Box," Willow said, "So we won't have to run around for supplies."

**If three new chapters in a row doesn't make up for screwing up on the last two, how about me saying that I only have a couple of chapters left to write before I'm done. And when I'm done, I'll update more often or more at once. Just give me a couple of week, okay?**


	11. Chapter 11

**I've seen a lot of people doing this, so I'm going to try this out for a while.**

**Mak8907: I'm getting there. Just have some patience, okay?**

**Kaddy16: Thank you for your support.**

**Sorry if I didn't reply here to your review, the thing is being funny.**

**...**

At Dawn's house, she found the first aide kit in the bathroom and turned to Danny. "Do want some help?" she asked, holding it out.

"Nah," he answered, taking the kit. "I'll be fine."

"Do you want a snack?" she asked as she left.

"Sure, thanks," Danny said before closing the door.

Dawn shrugged and hoped that there were some chips left in the cupboard.

Shade had been left outside, because they were afraid he might ruin the furniture. So he flew, invisible and intangible, around the house until he found Danny.

Danny started when his ghost sense went off, but calmed down a bit when Shade turned visible.

"Are you calm now?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorry," the cat muttered.

"It's alright." Danny took off his shirt and checked his side. The cut hadn't been deep, so it was already about half healed. "Thank goodness, it didn't seep through," he said under his breath.

Shade watched him put a gauze patch over it, before moving on to checking the scratches. Danny pulled his shirt back on, then debated about whether or not to bandage his hands.

"You might as well," Shade said.

"What?" Danny looked up surprised.

"After being in here for so long, she expects you to have some covered."

"Thanks," he muttered, as he dug around for gauze to wrap his arms in. Band-aids wouldn't do much good, since his arms were actually a patchwork of scratches now. Even though they were healing quickly and would be gone in a couple of hours.

Shade left the bathroom to sit on the front porch and wait for Danny to come down.

Dawn was munching on chips when Danny came back down, his arms covered in gauze. She winced.

"Sorry," Danny said as he joined her. "I didn't think band-aids would cover all of them, and I didn't want to wipe you out. Besides, you can just wash these later."

"Yeah, we do that often actually," Dawn muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

A few minutes later, they left the house with Shade following calmly after them. No one noticed that the cat actually hovered just above the sidewalk and didn't really move its legs like it was walking.

"Here we are," Dawn said. The two kids stood in front of the Magic Box.

"I thought it would be bigger," Danny said. Shade, sitting on his shoulder, nodded.

"Everybody does," Dawn muttered. "But that doesn't mean we don't sell good quality stuff."

"Shall we enter then?" Danny asked. Dawn opened the door. "Ladies first," Danny held the door for her. She smiled and walked in.

"That's funny," she heard Willow say.

"What is?" Dawn asked as Danny came in behind her. Shade followed on the ground.

"Hello Dawn," Buffy said.

"Hey guys," she said, "This is Danny," she waved at him. "He's from Amity Park."

The gang and Anya looked at Danny. And stared.

"Hi," he said, shifting his weight uncertainly.

Danny felt his stomach hit the floor when he saw who was there. Buffy, Xander, the guy with the glasses, and the one who did the spell that had him stuck here.

Dawn introduced him, and they all just stared at him.

"Hi," he said, uncertainly, wondering why they were staring at him.

"Is that the kid that Clem was talking about?" a woman with short hair asked from behind the counter.

"Do you have a cat?" the magic one asked before Shade clawed his way up his pants and onto his shoulder, yowling, "These are the guys that tried to kill you last night! Why are you just standing there? Run, run, run! You gotta get out of here!"

The Scooby Gang looked on in surprise when the cat clawed his way up Danny, yowling the whole way.

"I'm not deaf, Shade," he said, putting one hand to his ear, while grabbing the cat with the other. That was when they noticed that his arms were covered in gauze.

"Oh my gosh," Willow said, moving forward, "Are you alright? What happened?"

Danny held the still yowling cat carefully, and took an involuntary step backwards. "Shade here," he indicated the yowling cat in his arms, "Took offense when I almost left him at the school."

"Really?" Giles asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said, "It was actually kind of funny. Shade looked like he was chewing Danny out, almost literally. He didn't stop yowling until we were about halfway home."

"You took a stranger home?" Buffy asked sternly.

"He needed to take care of his scratches!" she defended herself.

"Yeah, my arms were kinda bad," Danny jumped in. Everybody's gaze swung to him. He shifted uncomfortably. "And after I set Shade down, he attacked my ankles."

Xander was sitting back, looking at the cat. Something about it seemed familiar.

"Why don't you sit down?" Giles asked.

"Alright," Danny sat down in a vacant chair and set Shade on his lap. Shade, who had stopped yowling in favor of grumbling incoherently, put his paws on the table.

"This is my sister Buffy," Dawn started introducing, "This is Willow," she gestured in turn to the girl who had cut him last night and the one who had closed the portal. "This is Giles." The guy with the glasses. "Xander and Anya," she pointed to Xander and the woman behind the counter.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

"What were you doing sleeping in an alley?" Anya asked him.

"Anya," Buffy scolded.

"What? You aren't asking," she said.

Danny just stared at them.

"You slept in an alley?" Dawn asked.

Shade smirked and jumped onto the table.

"Yeah," Danny sighed.

"Why?"

"Yes why?" Anya jumped in.

"Did you say you were from Amity Park?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah," Danny was starting to wish he hadn't come.

"Why did you come here?"

"Tell them the truth and fly out of here," Shade meowed.

Danny scowled at the cat.

"When did you start being able to understand your cat?" Willow asked.

Danny started in surprise. "What?" he asked.

"You can talk to your cat?" Dawn interjected, "That is so cool!"

"It's alright," Willow said, "I can do magic, too."

"Yeah, we saw that last night," Shade muttered.

"Just shut up," Danny told the cat, glaring at him.

"Well, that answers that," Giles sat down.

"How long have you been able to talk to him?" Willow asked again.

Danny leaned back, defeated. "Last night."

"Really?" They were surprised. "How did that happen?"

"He walked up to me and said here you go, be my friend," Danny answered.

"Are you serious?" Xander asked.

"That is not what happened!" Shade exclaimed, injured.

"More or less," Danny answered both statements at once.

"You've adjusted to that pretty well, then," Willow said.

"Yeah, well, after living with ghosts for the past couple of years, it's not really that surprising," Danny replied.

"Amity Park is the-" Buffy started

"The ghost capital of America, yeah," Danny interrupted.

"His parents are ghost hunters," Dawn supplied.

"Really?" Giles inquired, taking off his glasses.

"Yeah," Danny started, but stopped when his breath came out in a cloud.

"What was that?" Anya asked.

"Um," Danny looked around the store like he was expecting something to jump out and attack him.

"Beware, I am the Box Ghost!"

Danny slumped in his seat as a blue skinned, chubby guy floated up from the basement, a couple of boxes coming up behind him.

Danny reached for his thermos as Anya and Giles leaped up.

"Hey! You have to pay for those!" Anya yelled at him.

"Do you have any idea of what's in there?" Giles asked him.

"I do not know and I do not care!" the Box Ghost said. "They are boxes, and so they and their contents are mine!"

"Hey, Boxy!"

Everyone turned to see Danny, standing next to the table with a thermos in one hand, and its cap in the other.

"No!" the Box Ghost turned to phase through the back wall. "You will not put me in that cylindrical prison again!"

Before he could get there, though, a bright blue light came out of the thermos and captured the ghost. Danny quickly put the lid back on the thermos.

Everyone continued to stare at him. "That, Dawn," he said, "is how the thermos works." Then he sat down and put the thermos on the table.

"What did you bring that horrible ghost here for?" Anya asked. Everyone turned to look at her. "It didn't pay for anything," she pouted.

"The Box Ghost isn't horrible," Danny said. "He's just annoying. He visits my school several times a week."

"What do you know about ghosts?" Giles asked.

"Plenty," Danny answered amiably. "They do feel pain, and have extreme aversions to being dissected molecule by molecule. They all have the ability to turn intangible, invisible and fly. After that, they have an ability unique to themselves. For example, the Box Ghost has power over boxes."

"What do you know about a white-haired ghost boy?" Xander asked.

Danny hesitated and Willow jumped in. "I have my laptop," she said, "I'll check it out."

Shrugging, Danny said, "Look for 'Amity Park, white-haired ghost boy'."

"Are you sure we'll be able to find what we're looking for?" Willow asked as she typed it in.

"If you had just put in 'white-haired ghost' you would have gotten a lot more to sort through," Danny said simply. After all, he, Sam and Tucker had looked it up before for kicks. It had taken _hours_ just to find one picture of Phantom. And to add insult to injury, it had been an article about the time Walker and his goons had invaded Amity, calling him Inviso-Bill.

Sure enough, the Scoobies saw under images that there were plenty of pictures of a certain white-haired ghost boy.

Satisfied, Willow looked under 'web' for information. Lots of results came up.

"Wow," Xander said. "That's insane."

"Try this one," Buffy pointed to one of the many news articles.

Next to a picture of an aerial fight between the ghost boy and a robot with a jet pack shooting at each other was this article:

_Ghost menace Inviso-Bill appeared again today in Amity Park. He was seen flying away from the Nasty Burger, a local fast food restaurant popular among the youth. Following him was a robotic ghost. They flew over several blocks, firing blasts that destroyed many stores and several homes. _

_The Red Huntress showed up shortly after, and the three continued to destroy buildings. The Fentons arrived as quickly as they could, determined to capture the ghost boy and "dissect him molecule by molecule!" Sadly, Inviso-Bill once again evaded the determined ghost hunters._

_When asked about their most recent disappointment, Jack Fenton was given a cookie by Maddie Fenton, who said, "We will catch Inviso-Bill. He is a threat to the community and to our children, Jazz and Danny. To make our city a safe place for them, we are determined to capture the ghost boy." Then the two jumped into their RV and almost ran over several reporters in their haste to make sure that their children were alright._

"Phantom," Danny muttered under his breath. He was reading the article over Willow's shoulder along with the rest of them. Would they ever get his name right? he wondered.

"What was that?" Willow asked, going back to look at something else.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "What's that?" he pointed at a video.

Willow clicked on it, and after it loaded, showed a picture of the mayor, Vlad Masters. She clicked play and they all watched as Vlad talked about how Inviso-Bill ("Phantom," Danny muttered again) had kidnapped his best friend's son, Danny.

The Gang looked at Danny, who ignored them.

The clip went on to show a picture of Danny. Then it went on to say how he was going to do his very best to find young Danny, using every method at his disposal.

When it ended, Danny looked at the comments beneath it, while the Scooby Gang looked at him.

Before any of them could ask him what they really wanted to ask him, he turned to Willow, "Hey, do you mind if I get on for a minute?"

"Sure," she moved and he sat down.

Danny tried to log on, but found he couldn't. So, grumbling and muttering about tech geeks messing with online info, he tried something he remembered hearing Tucker say he was going to do.

The first thing he did once he was on was message Tucker about messing with his username.

**FriarTuck: hey, where are you?**

**Phantom: tuck, how and why did you change my username?**

**FriarTuck: sam says hi.**

**Phantom: *sigh* hi sam**

**FriarTuck: where are you?**

**Phantom: sunnydale. i'm borrowing a laptop.**

**FriarTuck: did you see the news?**

**Phantom: why do you think i'm on right now?**

**FriarTuck: hold on a sec…**

Danny waited a second, then typed:

**Phantom: sam, hit tucker for me.**

Another few seconds passed before Tucker replied.

**FriarTuck: that wasn't necessary, danny!**

**Phantom: i hope it hurt**

**FriarTuck: Wulf says Skullker found a rip**

Danny groaned. Great, just his luck.

**Phantom: did he say where?**

**FriarTuck: i'm lucky to get that much. hold on**

Danny waited a moment before remembering something he ought to tell them, and he typed it in before he forgot or something else attacked.

**Phantom: sam, remember that puppy? the one that was trained and liked to bug valerie's dad at work?**

**FriarTuck: sam- yeah**

**Phantom: now there's a cat**

A pause, like she was thinking about that, before Tucker got back on.

**FriarTuck: are you serious? Wulf said something that sounded like sunny day.**

**Phantom: thanks**

**FriarTuck: before you get off, Plasmius is hunting Phantom**

**Phantom: …thanks.**

**FriarTuck: *wince* sorry about that**

**Phantom: i'll see you when i get home**

Danny signed off. "Thanks Willow," he said as he got out of the chair.

"You were kidnapped by a ghost?" Xander sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

"No wonder you didn't want to say anything," Anya said as she left to take care of a customer.

"I wasn't kidnapped," Danny said, indignant.

"Then how did you get here?" Buffy asked.

Danny struggled to come up with a good excuse.

"Where did you say you got that cat?" Xander asked. "Because it looks familiar."

"Yeah," Dawn said, "It kinda looks like that cat that got run over a couple of days ago."

"Am I really that distinctive?" Shade meowed.

"You have a couple of crescent moons in your fur," Danny told it. "How is that not distinctive?"

"Willow," Xander whispered. "Take out the map. Try locating the ghost."

Puzzled, Willow pulled out her supplies.

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked.

"Well, I tried a locating spell earlier today. But what I was looking for was in the school," Willow answered.

"Are you sure this is a good time for that?" Buffy asked.

"I have an idea," Xander told her. "About that ghost we saw last night."

Danny paled when he heard that. "Is it a reliable method?" he asked.

"Yeah," Willow answered absently. "I haven't been wrong yet."

Dawn noticed Danny looking pale. "Are you alright Danny?"

"I think I need some air," he said, and started moving to the door.

"Why don't you wait here?" Xander asked, interposing himself between Danny and the door. "I'm sure you're curious to see some magic."

"Actually, after Desiree, I don't really care for it."

"Who's Desiree?"

"A wish granting ghost. She twists the wish, though, so it's not really what the person wished for."

"Hey, that sounds like what I used to do!" Anya said.

"What?" Danny was confused.

"Anya was a vengeance demon," Xander explained.

"I have a reading," Willow interrupted.

"Where is it coming from?" Xander asked.

"The Magic Box," she answered, surprised.

"Can you use the pendulum to find it here?"

"Gimme a second."

After a nerve wrenching moment while Willow preformed the spell, she brought the pendulum up and it swung around a bit before settling on Danny.

Everyone was surprised. "Is the ghost hiding in Danny?" Dawn asked

"Told you you should have run," Shade said.

"Shut up Shade," Danny retorted.

"Hold on a sec," Willow turned back to her laptop, and Danny knew he was in for it.

He slipped past Xander and ran for the door. Before he could make it, though, the door opened and Spike fell in. Danny ran into him, and Buffy jumped over to pull Spike out of the sun.

"Look here," Willow said. "Danny looks a lot like Inviso-Bill."

Buffy grabbed Danny by his collar and dragged him back into the store. "That only makes you look more guilty," she told him.

"I like being in one piece," he gasped. Then he turned his collar intangible and ran out the door. Shade flew through the door after him.

After a moment of stunned silence, Spike said, "He smelled like that ghost we saw last night."

**I think that I can do better with this, so maybe I'll come back and re-write it later.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry about not updating on Saturday, I wasn't near the computer at all. Spring cleaning.**

**Reviews:**

**Mak8907: Very good idea, but not quite.**

**CSIalchemist: I'm not telling. ...not yet anyway.**

**Zii Raevyn: While most of that was completely random, thanks for the alternat dimension idea. I'm stuck a few chapters ahead and that will definitely help me along. So Thanks!**

**Kaddy 16: Yeah, I know. I'm just a perfectionist is all.**

**chaos teacup: (this was the only way the stupid thing would work, sorry about your name) I am sorry to say, I don't do pairings. **

**LuNa: :).**

**...**

Danny ran through the town. While Buffy had held his collar, his ghost sense had gone off. Hoping to lure whoever it was away, he'd turned his collar intangible and run away. Sure enough, Skulker was in the sky, following his prey.

"There you are, whelp," he said, catching sight of Danny.

Quickly, the boy dived into an alley. Unfortunately, it was occupied. A couple of weird looking creatures were coming out of a building as he ran into the alley. One of them had floppy ears.

"Hey," it said. "Have you seen Buffy yet?"

Before Danny could do more than stare, Skulker appeared. "You're pelt will rest at the foot of my bed, ghost child!"

Danny took off running once again, Shade flying at his shoulder.

Clem decided to go find Buffy.

"We scared him away," Giles said.

"Maybe we should have been more cautious about talking to him," Willow suggested.

"Why do you care so much about the brat?" Spike asked.

Before anyone could answer him, Clem popped his head in the door.

"Did you know that that black haired boy is running from a flying robot?" he asked.

After a moment of stunned silence, they went into the back for weapons before heading out. Buffy asked Anya to keep an eye on Dawn and told Dawn to do her homework. Then they raced out of there, Willow at the lead with her pendulum leading the way.

Danny had finally found an empty alley and transformed, just in time to phase through the wall before Skulker caught up with him.

"You cannot hide from me, ghost child," Skulker said. "Your friends aren't here to help you either." He laughed.

Danny flew up from the building he'd phased into earlier, firing ecto-blasts at him.

Skulker brought up a shield, and watched them bounce harmlessly away.

"Can't you do any better than that?" Skulker fired a net at Danny, who was happy to find that he could phase right through it.

"What happened to those other nets of yours? Did you finally run out?" Danny taunted, punching him.

He grinned. "They're right here." He then shot Danny with an electric net and his smile widened when Danny screamed in pain. "I'll have your pelt on my wall, now," he said.

"Not so fast."

Startled, Skulker looked down and saw the Scooby Gang assembled below him.

"And what do you think you can do to stop me?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"This." Buffy said as she jumped up and swung her sword over her head, cutting the net. Danny dropped like a stone, turning back into Fenton as he fell. The Scoobies were startled at that, but figured they'd ask about it later. Xander caught him, while Giles fired a cross bow at Skulker.

Skulker turned intangible and the bolts went right through him. "Is that the best you can do?" he asked.

Xander put Danny down carefully before swinging his sword at the ghostly hunter, who phased through that as well. "This is as easy as fighting those idiot parents of his," he laughed, then fired rockets at them.

Danny came to just in time to see that, and threw up an ecto-shield around them as quickly as he could.

They looked at him in surprise.

As the shield fell, he turned back into Phantom. The Scoobies watched as his hair went from black to white, his eyes green from blue, and his shabby clothes turned into a jumpsuit as the rings passed over his form. "You can't fight him with those," he said once the rings disappeared. Then he flew up to face Skulker in the air once more.

"So how can we help?" Xander called up to the halfa as he dodged some sort of blade that had appeared on the ghost hunter's arm as the machine tried to punch the annoying little half-breed.

Danny did his best, but was once again knocked back down to earth. "Too bad Tucker isn't here," he muttered.

Buffy helped him up and offered him her sword. "Take it," she told him. He was about to refuse when she continued. "It's better than what you're doing now."

He nodded and took it. Then he flew up and swung the sword at Skulker.

"Xander, give me your sword," Buffy told him. He was opening his mouth to argue when she interrupted. "Then go to the Magic Box and get his thermos. It should be sitting on the table."

He nodded and gave it to her before turning to run back to the store.

Dawn was sitting at the table trying to focus on her math, when she realized that Danny had forgotten his thermos. "Hey Anya," she said.

"What?" Anya looked up from where she was counting the money in the drawer.

"Could I go and give them Danny's thermos?"

"You need to stay here."

"But I think Danny needs his thermos."

"No."

"But if Danny's fighting a ghost, he's going to need it."

Anya paused. She thought for a minute. "Get back here in five minutes," she said. "Or your sister will kill me."

Dawn grabbed the thermos and ran out the door.

Halfway between the Box and where Danny was fighting Skulker, Xander ran into Dawn. "Shouldn't you be doing your homework?" he asked.

"I brought Danny's thermos."

"Head back to the Box," he took the thermos from her and ran back the way he had come.

After a moment of debate, Dawn turned back to return to the Magic Box.

Xander returned in time to see Danny hit Skulker's arm with the sword, which was glowing green.

Danny saw Xander return, and had an idea. He was getting tired. He dropped down, avoiding Skulker's ecto-blast.

When Xander saw Danny drop, then start towards him, Xander realized what he was thinking. He watched him come closer. Skulker dropped after him and gained quickly.

"Now!" Danny shouted as he phased through Xander. He shivered and hit the button. Skulker was drawn into the thermos before he could register what had happened.

"Thanks," Danny said, before collapsing to the ground. They watched as the rings appeared around his waist and traveled, one up and one down, once again turning him back into Danny Fenton.

"Are you alright?" Willow asked as he took the thermos from Xander, who figured Danny would probably feel better with it, which he did.

"I'll be better after a nap," he said.

"Do you think you can make back to the Magic Box?" Buffy asked.

"I think I'll be lucky to walk down the street," the boy said as he suppressed a yawn.

"Shall we go for Giles's car?" Xander asked.

When they got no answer, they realized that he was out cold.

"I'll carry him," Buffy said. "Giles, go get your car, let's go to my place and let him sleep this off. Xander, go with him and get Dawn in the car, too."

"I think she might be distracted by Danny," Willow said.

Buffy conceded the fact. "Alright, make sure she gets most of it done before you bring her home."

"Right," Xander turned to follow Giles.

"Do you mind if I come with you?" Willow asked.

"Sure, could you carry the swords?"

"We should have made them carry them."

"Yeah," Buffy said as she gently picked Danny up.

They settled Danny down in Buffy's bed, figuring he might be disoriented when he woke. They also didn't want him to mess up any of Willow's magic stuff.

Then they settled down in the kitchen.

"What should we do for dinner?" Buffy muttered as she perused the kitchen.

"We could order a pizza," Willow suggested.

Buffy weighed her options, and decided that pizza would be better than another Meaty Burger, employee discount or not.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry about not updating yesterday, I offer no excuses.**

**CSIalchemist: Yep**

**Booksquirm: Well, Skulker _is_ persistant. Plus, it's fun to have Danny beat him up, or write about the disgusted looks on people's faces when he talks about Danny's pelt.**

**LuNa: I write ahead. That way, I _can_ update regularly.**

**Kaddy16: :)**

**Mak8907: I know he could. A full nights rest would probably be the most helpful thing, though, and he didn't exactly get that.**

**chaotic teacup: Thank you. **

**FYI all- I'm almost done writing it.**

**...**

"How is he?" Dawn asked when she got home.

"He's resting in Buffy's room," Willow answered. Buffy was on the phone ordering some pizza.

"Can I-"

"No."

Dawn pouted.

"Why don't we see what's on TV?" Willow asked. "Then we can eat pizza and watch something."

Dawn sighed, "Fine."

**(...)**

Spike poked his nose in just after the pizza guy left.

"Did you figure out what was up with that kid?" he asked.

"We're waiting for him to wake up," Dawn answered, grabbing a slice.

"What is he doing sleeping here?"

"He passed out and we brought him home," Buffy glared at him. "You will leave him alone until we figure out what's what."

"Fine," he grumbled, and sat down on the couch.

**(...)**

Not too much later, Danny woke up to a pressure on his chest. He opened his mouth to scream-and got a mouthful of fur.

Shade pulled his tail out of Danny's mouth, smiling. "Good morning, sunshine," he said sweetly.

Danny turned to spit fur out of his mouth, but stopped when he saw that he was in a bedroom. "How did I get here?" he wondered.

"Buffy and them brought you here," Shade answered. "They are deciding how best to dissect you even as we speak."

"What?" Danny fell off the bed in surprise, knocking over the nightstand as he went.

Shade hovered, laughing. "Oh, the look on your face is priceless!"

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. Then he noticed the change of clothes sitting on a chest at the foot of the bed.

He grabbed them and left the room to the laughing ghost cat. He quickly went into the bathroom to change and wash the fur out of his mouth, not in that order.

**(...)**

Thunk! Crash!

Everybody froze and looked up. The sounds seemed to come from Buffy's bedroom. After a moment of silence, they heard a door upstairs slam.

"Well," she said, grabbing a slice of pizza, "I guess he's awake."

Dawn got up from the couch and grabbed a couple of pizza slices before running upstairs.

"Dawn!" Buffy yelled. "Don't eat upstairs!"

She rolled her eyes and stopped. Two doors were closed, Buffy's bedroom and the bathroom.

"Hey, Danny," she said, going to the closed bathroom door.

The door opened suddenly, surprising her. Danny was standing in front of the sink, wearing a geeky T-shirt that seemed to be a bit large on him, and an old pair of jeans. Both of which had been supplied by Xander. While she watched, he spit into the sink. "What?" he asked, before filling his mouth again.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He spit into the sink again. "Shade put his tail into my mouth. Who knew ghost cats shed so much."

"I brought you some pizza," she said before he could make up his mind on whether or not to rinse his mouth again.

"Thanks," he said, taking a bite. Then he spit it into the trash. "Ugh," he said, spitting into the sink again. "I think it would taste better if I didn't still have fur in my mouth."

Then he smacked himself in the forehead. "I am such an idiot," he muttered. Dawn watched, amazed, as he put his entire hand into his mouth, then pulled out a handful of fur. He threw it into the trash, then repeated the process. Danny stopped cleaning the fur out of his mouth when he realized that Dawn was staring at him with wide eyes. He pulled his empty hand out of his mouth.

"Uh," he started, but Dawn turned and ran back down the stairs. He sighed, then shut the door again and went back to taking the fur out of his mouth.

"What happened?" Willow asked when Dawn ran back downstairs with only one piece of pizza.

"He…his hand…," she tried to say.

"What?" Spike said, "That made no sense."

She was still trying to form a coherent sentence when Danny started down the stairs with a half eaten slice of pizza in his hand. He winced when he saw how everyone was looking at him. "Oh, joy," he muttered.

Spike and Willow were on the couch, with a space there he assumed was for Dawn in the middle. Giles and Xander were each in a chair and Buffy was leaning on the wall next to the door.

"What did you do?" Spike growled at him, getting ready to jump at him over the smallest of things.

"Shade put his tail in my mouth," Danny explained, wishing he could eat his pizza in peace. "I tried rinsing the fur out of my mouth, but apparently ghost cats shed lots of fur when they want to." Then he took a bite of his pizza, both to forestall questions and because he was starving.

"How long was I out?" he asked, before taking another bite.

"A couple of hours," Giles answered.

Danny nodded and swallowed. "Since you're not going to dissect me," he said, "I guess you have a lot of questions."

They stared at him with varying reactions of horror.

"Dissect you?" Willow asked, shocked.

"Are the Initiation after you?" Buffy asked.

Danny looked at them with as much confusion as they looked at him. "Did you skip over the part where my parents said they 'were going to dissect him molecule by molecule'? Because since ghosts started showing up in Amity Park, I've heard that and more. Sometimes by people who can actually fight."

"What do you mean by that?" Xander asked.

Danny swallowed his bite of pizza, then looked at the crust. "Do any of you want this?" he asked. Everybody shook their head. "I guess everybody here knows my secret by now, right?"

"We deal with demons and vampires on a regular basis," Buffy said, and gestured to Willow, Xander, and Giles before continuing. "We've been defending this town since we were about your age. We know how to keep secrets."

Danny nodded, then phased the crust directly to his stomach.

They all stared at him and he couldn't help but smirk at them. "What, did you think I couldn't do anything like that?" he asked and gestured at himself.

"What are you?"

Danny sighed. "I'm half ghost," he started before Spike interrupted.

"That's ridiculous," he said.

Remembering some earlier comments he'd heard the guy make, he said, "What about my smell? You said something about how I smelled off."

"It could have been because you were raising zombies!" Spike was determined in his mind set.

Before either of them could continue, Shade phased through the ceiling, glaring at Danny.

"That really wasn't necessary, you know," he meowed.

"Don't stuff your tail in my mouth, then," Danny retorted.

"What did he say?" Willow asked.

"He thought that me putting an ecto-shield around him for putting his tail in my mouth was unnecessary," Danny answered, still glaring at the cat.

"A what?" Giles asked, not having heard the term before.

"Are the curtains all closed?" Danny asked.

"Yeah."

"Then watch," he said throwing his arms out. "Going ghost!" he shouted. Everybody watched as the blue ring appeared around his waist, then separated into two. One went up, the other down, changing the boy's appearance as it went. The clothes turned into a black and white suit, with a stylized DP on his chest. Gloves appeared on his hands, and boots on his feet. His eyes went from ice blue, to bright green and his hair from black to white.

Danny watched as some of their jaws dropped. Then the door opened and Danny disappeared. Anya came in huffily. "What are you doing here, Spike?" she asked.

"I don't need to answer that," he huffed and crossed his arms.

"Where is that ghost boy?" she hadn't even waited to hear Spike's answer.

"I think he's over there," Buffy said, waving at the place where Danny had been standing before he disappeared.

They heard a snort from somewhere above the couch. "If this is how you keep a secret, I'd do better telling Valerie or the Guys in White."

"Where is he?" Anya demanded, while Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles asked, "The who?"

Danny appeared above the couch in a sitting position with his arms folded. "The Guys in White. They are a seriously over-funded section of the government who hunt ghosts."

Everybody but Anya jumped as she asked, "So, are you from that green swirly portal?"

"Sort of," Danny answered honestly.

"How sort of?" Anya asked.

Danny floated away from the couch, still facing Anya. "Well," he started before Shade leaped at him. "Jeeze!" He turned intangible, but the cat hit him anyway, sending both of them down through the floor.

He hit the basement floor with a rather loud thud. When he got his breath back, he started yelling at the cat. "What the heck is wrong with you?"

"You are an idiot!" the cat yowled back at him. "Are you going to share all your secrets with them?"

"If you're this bad with them, you're going to kill me when I talk with my friends!" Danny retorted. "They, by the way, _know_ my secrets."

"Then you are an idiot! No one should ever know so many of your secrets."

"They were there when it happened, they are there to dig me out of trouble, and they are there to cover for me!"

**...**

**Sorry about no line breaks before, I'll fix that later.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry about this being a couple of days late. Moving is a crazy thing. Reviews at the bottom this time.**

**...**

After the boy and the cat fell through the floor, they heard loud yelling and yowling. In fact, the yelling was so loud, that they could make out every word.

"How long did he say he had that cat?" Xander asked.

"Since last night," Willow answered. "I don't think he's had a lot of time to lay down rules."

"Ya think?"

Buffy opened the basement door and started down the stairs.

"Whoa," Spike leapt up to stop her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To talk with the kid." She just put her foot on the top step when they heard something crash. She hurried down the stairs and saw Danny holding Shade by the scruff, sitting, literally, in a fallen shelf.

"What the heck?" she said.

"Shade is going to find himself in the thermos if he doesn't start behaving," Danny said, to both her and the cat. "Especially if he's going be pushing things over."

The cat crossed his paws over his chest and hissed.

"I'm sure Skulker would be glad for the company," Danny told him tartly. "He's probably sick of dealing with the Box Ghost."

After a moment, the cat puffed at Danny.

"That's good enough for now, I guess." Then he held the cat away from him and formed a green globe around the cat, who started yowling as soon as it began to form.

"Too bad." Danny finished the ecto-shield and carried it over to the stairs. "I hope you don't mind," he said. "Shade hasn't had to deal with a halfa partner before."

"What's a halfa?" she asked, following him upstairs.

"A halfa is a half ghost, half human," he explained at the top of the stairs, where he let go of the green ball. The group was surprised when it just hovered there.

"How is that possible?" Xander asked.

"It requires a long and lengthy explanation," Danny said. "Is there any more pizza? Aside from lunch earlier, I really haven't eaten very much in the last couple of days."

"You need to eat?" Anya asked.

Danny laughed. "Just because I'm half ghost, you think I'm dead and don't need to eat? I'm also a growing teen, and I hear they eat a lot."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

He shrugged. "I'm too busy fighting ghosts that either want to kill me, or want to destroy my city. They don't need to eat, and I often end up skipping meals to catch them."

"Doesn't your family have leftovers?" Dawn came into the kitchen with a pizza box.

"If you'd seen my parent's cooking, you'd understand why I don't even open the fridge anymore," he shuddered while reaching for the pizza. Before his hand touched the pizza, it had turned back into a human hand, and they watched once again as the rings traveled up and down, turning him from ghost to human. When he took a bite of the pizza, his hair was finishing going from white to black.

"What?" he asked when he realized they were all staring at him. "The suit doesn't really taste good," he explained. "It actually makes things taste like whoever I just sucked into the thermos."

"Really?" Anya asked. "How does that taste?"

Danny paused before taking another bite. "Depends. They all taste like ectoplasm. Skulker's fist tastes like metal coated with ectoplasm."

"You taste his fist?" Xander asked.

Danny shrugged. "He punches my face in on a fairly regular basis." He reached for another piece.

"Would you like a plate?" Willow asked.

"This is fine," Danny answered, taking a big bite. "It tastes wonderful without the fur."

"Fur?"

Danny pointed at Shade over his shoulder with his thumb, "He woke me up and put his tail in my mouth. I tried to rinse it out, but it only made things worse. I finally just picked it all out with my hand. Kinda freaked Dawn out."

They all nodded and Danny grabbed a third piece.

"Is that healthy?" Anya asked.

"What?"

"Is eating all that pizza healthy for you?"

He shrugged. "This is the first real meal I've had in about two days."

"What was the last one?"

"When I had dinner with Sam and Tucker at Tucker's after escaping Walker and Johnny 13 and Shadow," he said after swallowing. "Mrs. Foley had to make a big salad for Sam."

"Did you eat this much then?" she asked as he went for another.

"I think I had three or four full plates."

"Are you always this hungry after a fight?"

"Mostly I'm tired and hope to be able to eat when I wake up later."

"Stop telling them!" Shade yowled from his green ball.

"They already noticed, so try saying something useful."

"Would you like to sleep, then?" Buffy asked.

"I should actually work on getting home," he said sheepishly. "Before Plasmius finds me."

"Who's that?" Anya asked.

"My biggest enemy."

Before they could question him further, Danny's breath came out in a cloud.

"Oh no," he groaned, setting down the pizza and looking around.

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

"Company." Danny changed into Phantom and started to float.

Then something small and green slammed into him and he flew into the living room.

The Scoobies hurried after him, and were surprised to see him just lying on his back on the floor under a green puppy that was busy liking his face.

Danny laughed and picked the dog up, holding it away from his face so he could breathe. The group just stares at him, dumbfounded.

"Is that a _green_ dog?"

Danny looked back at them sheepishly. "Uh, sorry," he said, sitting up. "This is Cujo." He held the dog so they could see him properly. It was a puppy.

"Do you mean Cujo as in Stephan King's Cujo?" Dawn asked, confused.

"Yeah. A friend of mine helped me name him."

"The killer dog?" she continued, unconvinced.

"It's actually really fitting."

Dawn just raised her eyebrows, clearly unconvinced.

"Soooo," Xander started. "Is it…?"

"He's not dangerous, per say," Danny answered. "He just, uh…well, he doesn't do anything on purpose. Besides getting out of the Ghost Zone and finding me."

"Would you like to explain?" Anya asked.

"Sure," Danny sat up. "Right now, he's harmless. If you upset him in any way, _then_ he's dangerous."

"Can I pet him?" Dawn asked.

"You can try, I guess. He doesn't seem to like anyone but me, though. Which is why he keeps getting out of the Ghost Zone."

"How does he do that?" Willow asked.

"He digs his way out, how else?" Danny answered distractedly, keeping an eye on Cujo to make sure he didn't bit Dawn's hand off.

"Are you sure he's dangerous?" Dawn asked as she scratched behind his ears. The dog's tail wagged vigorously as he sat in Danny's lap.

"Just don't move him."

"Why not?" she pouted.

"Your living room looks really nice as it is. You know, in one piece."

"If only it would stay that way," Xander mourned.

"Does it get destroyed often?" Danny asked looking up.

"It only seems like it because he's the one that fixes it," Willow said poking him.

"How did you become a halfa?" Giles asked.

Danny started and Cujo looked up at him. "Uhh…"

Cujo started growling when he realized that Danny was uncomfortable.

"Cujo, calm down," Danny grabbed the little dog and turned it to face him. "He's not going to hurt either of us, so just calm down, alright? There is no reason to hurt him or destroy the house."

While Danny calmed the dog down, he turned human again to show Cujo that he was relaxed and the Scooby Gang watched in confusion. Why was Danny so worried about that little dog being upset?

"Why are you so worried about that little dog getting upset?" Anya asked. "I mean, it's just a puppy!"

"Cujo is not a puppy," Danny deadpanned. "Cujo is a ghost. An overprotective ghost that could rival my sister in overprotectiveness. And trust me, she is _really_ overprotective." Realizing that he was off topic, he cleared his throat nervously. "Right. Well, when he first showed up, he destroyed the lab a friend of mine's dad works at. Then he showed up at her house while they were moving and ruined a lot of her stuff. Then, when he started to calm down, he got to liking me, and showed his nicer form," here he held the puppy up, "and I finally understood what he wanted. Unfortunately, said friend blames Phantom and his dog for having her life ruined."

"Phantom?"

"Me, Danny Phantom."

"That is so cool!" Dawn exclaimed.

"What?" Danny asked wearily.

"You're the hero of Amity Park! That is so awesome! We have a real live hero in our house!"

"And what is your sister?" Willow asked.

"That's different! I live with her."

Danny snorted. "And that's what my sister said before she realized that the ghost hunters were there to hunt me, not my enemies."

"Why would they hunt you?" Xander asked.

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Dawn beat him to it.

"Because he's a ghost, duh," she retorted. "All the ghosts in Amity Park destroy stuff when they fight," here Danny winced, "but Danny Phantom protects the town so nobody really ends up hurt."

"Actually," Danny winced as he spoke, "somebody _always_ ends up hurt. Usually, it's me and/or the ghost I'm fighting."

"Usually?" Buffy asked.

Again, Danny winced. "Sometimes there's a fire, or one of Skulker's rockets hits a building that still has people in it. Nobody dies! But people still get hurt. If it's not me or who I'm fighting, then it's a ghost hunter, one of my friends, The Red Huntress, my sister or my parents."

Everybody blinked at that. Before they could respond, though, Cujo growled.

"Where did you get that dog? It has terrible manners."

Danny face palmed as Cujo jumped out of his lap at the infuriating cat. "Just don't destroy the house," he sighed in defeat.

Taking that as permission, Cujo grew into his larger form and started after Shade, who turned intangible and fled.

All the Scoobies jaws dropped as Cujo followed, causing minimal damage to the house.

"Sorry about the coffee table," Danny said, looking at the nice pile of firewood that lay in the middle of the room.

"I see what you mean," Giles said as he wiped his glasses on his shirt hem. "That dog is, ah, interesting."

"And very dangerous when upset," Danny reminded them. "He likes to show up in the middle of the night to play fetch. By time he's ready to go back to the Zone, it's time for me to go to school."

"That sucks," Xander said.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it. Once, he came for a week straight around midnight. So between grabbing Boxy, five minutes of sleep, Jonny 13, Boxy, Shadow, Boxy, Boxy, another five minutes of sleep, Boxy, Skulker, Boxy, Boxy, Boxy, somebody else and Boxy, I had to play fetch."

"You said Boxy nine times," Anya pointed out.

"Really?" Danny asked. Anya nodded. "Well then I must have forgotten a couple of times because that week I swear he showed up at least fifteen times. Sam said I was exaggerating and Tucker checked the Portal archive and agreed with her saying it was just twelve."

"You're joking," Spike said.

Danny grinned. "Nope. Boxy gets out of the Zone so often, even the tourists aren't scared of him."

Then he yawned.

Willow smiled. "Apparently, you still need some sleep," she said.

Danny blushed and yawned again. "Sorry," he said. "Normally I manage a couple of hours after I wake up. Guess Skulker upgraded his nets again." He yawned after that last statement, then sighed. "Can I borrow a phone or a computer? I need to let my friends know where I am."

"I'll set up my laptop in the dining room," Willow said.

"Thanks," Danny yawned as Willow left the living room.

"Wait," Spike said, "Did you say he upgraded his nets?"

"Again?" Xander added.

"Yeah," Danny shrugged. "He's been after my pelt for a while now. Wants to hang it above the fireplace or lay it across the foot of his bed, depending on his mood." He ignored their 'eww's at the mention of his pelt. After all, he'd been hearing that so often that it hardly meant anything anymore.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Anya asked.

Danny raised an eyebrow and yawned. "Not really. At first, yeah, but not so much anymore. He always ends up in the thermos." Danny brought up his thermos and shook it a little. A faint voice could be heard coming from it, probably protesting the rough handling. "And I can't empty it right now because the Portal is back in Amity and I won't make it back tonight." He yawned again to emphasis his point.

"Danny," Willow called.

The halfa got up and stretched, grunting as he did so. Then he went into dining room to let his friends know that he would be staying the night and he'd get back as soon as he could.

**...**

**CSIalchemist: Well, he's never had a halfa partner before.**

**Kaddy 16: :)**

**Zii Raevyn: It doesn't matter, Danny's life _is _Murphy's Law.**

**LuNa: I write ahead. Although, I'll be trying something new with GitSchool.**

**Mak8907: They already know he's half ghost. **

**ethiopian1987: Didn't you see Public Enemies? He swallowed his spork and had to reach inside to take it out. I just did that in reverse.**

**chaotic teacup: He's just a ghost cat that never had to deal with partnering up with a halfa before. He's used to ghost or human partners and keeping their secrets.**


	15. Chapter 15

**CSIalchemist: What is that cat's problem? I really don't know, I guess I thought he would be funny. He is kinda running the other way though. *shrug* Ah, well. He keeps the story interesting.**

**Booksquirm: True. On all counts. :)**

**Fantasy-Mania31: *smile* I'm glad you like it.**

**ethiopian1987: Yes, yes he does. He's also loads of fun to write annoying Danny. ;)**

**LuNa: The cat, maybe. Cujo, no. The poor dog is obviously a ghost.**

**Mak8907: Just for you:**

Cujo is running though Sunnydale, chasing that annoying little smart-mouthed cat. At some point during their chase, they went through a small shop. Fortunately, the shop was closed.

Unfortunately, it was a magic supply shop. Thankfully, not the Magic Box.

As they ran through, Shade decided to try hiding in one of the boxes. Cujo sniffed him out and knocked it over. This process continued until the shop was a wreck and they were in the basement. Shade knocked a box over on top of Cujo.

The box never made it to the floor.

The contents were highly volitile and in being pushed over, the knocked into each other.

The nameless magic shop was blown sky high.

After a few minutes, the rubble shifted and a little green head poked out. A moment later, a small grey head poked out. Dog and cat regarded each other for several moments before the dog growled and started to grow. The chase was back on. Shade high tailed it out of there before Cujo was fully huge again.

**I hope you like that.**

**...**

_**Hey guys. I just wanted to let you know, I might not update this on time. My grandpa is dieing so I might not be spending a lot of time around a computer. Just thought you should know before it's late and I get a lot of complaints for being late.**_

**...**

"Good morning."

Danny blinked blearily, his usual morning response. Then he blinked again when he saw the number of people in the kitchen. And again as he took in the room at large.

"Are you alright?" Dawn asked a very unresponsive Danny.

The halfa sat down at the table and let his head fall on the table with a thud. "I hate mornings," he mumbled.

Giles chuckled.

Danny turned his head to glare at the man, his eyes flashing green. "You're lucky I'm not awake," he said.

"It _is_ funny, though," Willow said. "You woke up yesterday and were walking around like nothing had happened."

"That was recovery," the boy explained. "This is natural."

"What if there's a ghost attack in the morning?" Buffy asked.

He just grunted and brought his arms up to pillow his head.

Willow laughed and put a plate of pancakes in front of him. Danny looked up a moment later and, upon seeing the food in front of him, turned the plated all the way around, looking over every inch, before grabbing the fork and eating.

"She's not going to poison you, you know," Dawn said.

"Huh?" Danny said, still not fully functioning.

The girl pointed to Danny's plate. "You just inspected that like you expected it to bite you."

Danny snorted. "Automatic reaction. I don't trust my parents' cooking, especially first thing in the morning."

Dawn looked like she was about to open her mouth to ask another question when Danny explained.

"My parents like to experiment with cooking with ecto-energies. Tell-tale signs of that are glowing, floating, eyes, mouths, drool, dripping ectoplasm, or just plain attacking us for even thinking of eating them. Never mind if it doesn't fight back, it _still_ tastes horrible."

Xander raised an eyebrow, curious. "How horrible?"

Danny looked at him blankly. "Have you ever tasted ectoplasm?" he asked.

"No."

"Lucky," Danny muttered. "It's like," he continued louder, "being a meat eater, hating vegetables and eating some. Or being an ultra-recyclo vegetarian and eating meat."

"Ultra _what_ vegetarian?"

"Doesn't eat anything with a face on it."

"That's not much of an explanation."

"It's the best I can give. Unless you want to try some?" Danny held his hand out, his eyes glowing green. As the gathered Scoobies watched, a ball of glowing green formed above it.

"Uh, no thanks," Xander said backing up.

Danny snorted and went back to his breakfast. "I thought so."

Just then, Buffy came into the kitchen in her uniform. "Morning guys," she said. She got a chorus of 'good morning's back and a grunt. "Morning Danny," she said to the boy who looked like he was still asleep and eating at the same time.

"Hate mornings," he muttered between bites.

She chuckled as she went to the door. "You guys are going to explain while I'm at work, right?" she called over her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Buffy," Willow said, "We'll get him up to speed."

"Have a good shift!" Dawn yelled before the door closed. Everyone heard a groan come from that direction before the door slammed shut.

About ten minutes later, after he'd finished devouring the next set of pancakes Willow put in front of him, something finally registered. "Explain what?" he asked.

Dawn laughed and Danny glared at her. "What?" he demanded.

"I can't believe it took you that long to ask about it!" she gasped between chuckles.

The halfa's eyebrow twitched. "I don't operate well in the morning."

"What normally wakes you up?" Giles asked, hoping to stop the oncoming argument.

"Something blowing up in the basement, Boxy, my parents wanting to show off a new invention, a ghost showing up on my way to school, getting shoved in my locker," Danny yawned.

"So, in other words," Willow set another plate of pancakes in front of the hungry halfa, "an adrenalin rush."

Danny shrugged and started in on the new plate. Then he gasped as a blue mist came from his mouth. He groaned as another followed.

Outside came the sound of barking and yowling.

"Oh, it's just Cujo and Shade," Danny said as he looked through the window.

"Just…?" Giles began, moving to look out the window. He was joined by Willow, Dawn and Xander while Danny went back to eating.

Cujo, in his larger form, was chasing Shade up and down the street, knocking over flimsy street signs, denting cars, and breaking the lower branches off of trees. Shade was yowling something only Danny could interpret and Cujo was barking his head off chasing the rude little cat.

"So," Danny said, causing the Scoobies to turn away from the devastated street. "What did Buffy want you guys to explain?"

Giles sent Danny out to take care of his pets ("They aren't _my_ pets! Cujo and Shade claimed me, there's a difference!") before they settled down to explain about Buffy being the Slayer. "One born to each generation to save the world" and all that.

They started off with vampires ("Do they really look like stereotypical vampires?" "No, they look like you and me unless they're feeding or not hiding, then they have these really ugly faces." "Cool." "Xander, shut up. We're trying to explain before we go to the Magic Box. Anya is expecting us soon.") and moved on to magic and demons. They were surprised when Danny accepted it all.

The halfa shrugged when they voiced their surprise. "Plasmius looks like a vampire. Plus, I've been through portals to different times. It would have been fun if we weren't chasing Plasmius. Besides, ghost artifacts could be classified as magic, right?"

"What about demons?" Dawn asked.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Fright Knight, Skulker sort of, I guess, Bones, ecto-pusses," he listed, holding up a finger for each one. "What do you count yetis as?"

"We don't really know," Giles said. "Some believe they are the results of magic experiments, others believe they are demons."

"So demons are pretty much anything not human or animal?"

"They could be huge or tiny," Willow answered.

"Then Skulker definitely counts as a 'demon' I've met."

"Well, since we've got that covered," Xander said, "Let's head over to the Box. It's not a good idea to have Anya alone in the store for to long."

"So, what are you guys up to today?" Danny asked as the older members began placing several dusty tombs on the table shortly after arriving at the little magic supply shop.

"Well," Giles began, "Yesterday, when we were looking for you, I heard an aspiring witch say something about summoning a dragon princess."

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"So we are going to do what we can to prevent the summoning," Willow added.

"And baring that, they'll make sure the damage isn't too bad," Anya threw in.

The Scoobies gave her a look while Danny snickered.

"The only time there's been minimal damage for me has been when the fight was in the GZ, or when it was a blob of evolved ectoplasm like the ecto-puses or if it was Johnny and Kitty," Danny explained when the Look was transferred to him. "Sometimes Skulker or Ember don't break stuff, but that's rare."

After several hours of research ("I'm not even in school right now, why do I need to do research," Danny grumbled.), they found what they need to stop the summoning of a dragon.

"So," Danny said, slouching in his chair, "What happens now? I mean, do you know where this witch is gonna do the summoning thing?"

"No," Giles sighed.

"I can easily find out, though," Willow said. "Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure," Danny jumped up, eager to move around, to do _anything_ other than sit there in the shop.

Giles chuckled as the halfa followed the witch out the door.

"So where are we going, exactly?" Danny asked when they were a few blocks away from the Magic Box.

Willow chuckled. "You just agreed to come with me because you were bored, huh?"

"My research of ghosts pretty much consists of me listening to their rant," Danny replied. "Or Sam or Tucker do research on something and tell me about it later. That's how I found out about Fright Knight."

"Who's that? I remember you mentioned him earlier," Willow asked, curious.

"He's the ghost of Halloween," Danny answered. "Or Samhain or something. He can only be defeated by putting his sword in a pumpkin."

"Like the Sword in the Stone?"

"Yeah. Then he only comes back if some idiot pulls it out."

"That's a good thing to be aware of."

Danny winced a bit as he said, "Yeah, it is."

Before she could ask about it though, he went on, "He had a bit of a rant too, though. He talked about how he was going to take over the world with his sword, the Soul Shredder. Then he would rule the world with fear."

"He said that?" Willow asked, raising an eyebrow.

Danny shrugged. "More or less. I summed it up a bit. Anyway, where are we going, exactly?"

"I'm going to talk to some of the local covens and witches to see what I can find out about our witch summoning a dragon princess. That kind of summoning requires more than one witch, because the being is so powerful. Once we find whoever is helping her, we need to convince them that this is a bad idea."

"Then they won't want to do it anymore, right?" Danny asked. Willow nodded. "Something tells me it's not going to be that easy."

The witch sighed. "It never is. But that doesn't stop us from trying."

Willow led Danny all over town, searching for the coven that the witch belonged to. However, no one knew anything about it. Either that, or they were lying.

The halfa followed the witch with growing concern. Sure, none of his enemies were ever a simple search and find away (okay, they sort of were, outside of the Ghost Zone. Thank you, ghost sense.), but he could tell that Willow's enthusiasm was waning.

So, when the witch flopped onto a bench in a park, exhausted, Danny tried to cheer her up.

"How many more places are there to visit?" he asked.

Willow sighed. "More than I'd like, right now."

"What if we tried something else?"

Willow looked over at him. "We? I've been doing all the talking."

Danny grinned. "Yeah. I could help. Instead of standing near the door, I could follow you, invisible, until we get to the next coven or whatever. Then I could become visible or move things around and freak them out or something."

Willow stared at him for a moment. Then she laughed. "You're bored aren't you?" she asked.

Danny reddened a bit. "Maybe a little," he admitted.

Willow laughed again. "It _is_ a good idea though."

Danny grinned.


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks for not killing me and being understanding and patient. I still have the last two chapters to write and I'll get to that soon, otherwise you might have to wait a while for an update. If that _does_ somehow manage to happen, I promise that I won't leave you hanging.**

**CSIalchemist: First, thank you for your concern. Second, why would he want to do that? He's only met Dora a couple of times.**

**Booksquirm: I'm glad you're liking Cujo so much. He's one of my favorites. :)**

**LuNa: Thank you for your concern. I really apprecitate it. Though, Cujo would be great to have around. Comic relief and all that.**

**Zii Raevyn: Your welcome. :)**

**ethiopian1987: No, he does something even better. That I may, or may not, rewrite to make it better. And yeah, I remember some awsome things about my grandpa. He loved to make things out of wood. My aunts, uncles, and random people who he made stuff for their kids claimed all of the toys he made until they could be apriciated by the kids he made them for.**

**Mak8907: (grin) I'm glad. However, you might not like what I did write. (grin turns evil)**

**chaotic teacup: Very well said. :)**

**...**

After giving Willow something to look forward to, they went to the next place, stopping briefly in an alley.

"So what do you want me to do?" Danny asked quietly as he floated just over her shoulder.

"What _can_ you do?" Willow asked.

Green eyes glowed brighter with mischief, even though the halfa was invisible. "Well, I get the jocks back all the time with pranks. I move stuff around, I booby-trap lockers." His eyes glittered. "I even got Dash to go to school in a pink tutu."

"Really?" Willow was surprised.

Danny shrugged. "I don't like to overshadow, but I do in the name of harmless pranks and getting back at being shoved into my locker on a daily basis."

"What?"

"I overshadow Tucker sometimes, but it's never anything hurtful (except for the whole "quit hitting yourself" thing), of life-threatening, or dangerous. Just for practice and pranks. Like making him go into the girls' bathroom so the cheerleaders chase him down. I overshadowed Dash the one time because it was test week. I figured if Dash was going to beat me up, I might as well deserve it. Besides," he said. "I protect everybody in Amity Park. I figure I deserve _some_ kind of relief for that."

"Buffy's been the Slayer for about five years," Willow said. "I don't think she's ever had a break from that. I mean, she used to be a cheerleader before she came to Sunnydale. Then she joined me and Xander at the bottom of the social ladder. I think the only good thing about that was that nobody really questioned us about where we were going or what we were doing after school when we had to stop an apocalypse or some demon."

Danny nodded. "I get that. Ghosts attack multiple times daily. Mostly it's the Box Ghost. Me, Sam, and Tucker were already at the bottom of the social ladder, though. Tucker's a techno geek, Sam's an ultra-recyclo vegetarian Goth big on individuality, and my parents are ghost hunters. I didn't have much of a chance because of that." He followed silently for a while. "At least I can get out of my locker on my own, now," he said. Then he shrugged. "I don't really pull a lot of pranks with my powers anymore, anyway. Sidney Pointdexter thought I was a bully for pranking Dash. He thought I was misusing my powers and I guess he was right. After that, I stuck with small things that anybody could do. With the exception of stuffing Dash's plushies into his locker. I don't think I would've been able to fit them all in there without intangibility."

"You stuffed a bunch of plushies into Dash's locker?" Willow asked, amused.

Danny grinned. "The best part was that they were his and that they were embarrassing."

"Why did you do that?"

"I got invited to one of his parties. Long story short, my sister got him to invite me in exchange for her tutoring him. I sold some junk from the shed to pay for the outfit I needed to go. Unfortunately, Dash bought something that prevented him from getting that outfit so he changed the theme to "losers", meaning that everybody dressed up like me, Sam, or Tucker. I wandered around and found Dash's room, plushies and all."

"So you got back at him for making fun of your friends?"

"That and making me look stupid. I showed up in the outfit that I was told to wear to begin with."

"Alright," Willow said. "Here we are. Let me talk to them first. I'll give you a signal to start haunting them."

"That works for me," Danny grinned as his eyes glowed.

Danny's method worked for them a bit better than Willow's previous. After talking to the group and coming up with nothing, the witch signaled the halfa to start "haunting" the room. While the witches freaked out, Willow would question them again. This time, they told her about a rumor that had been going around about a new coven of high-schoolers were going to test their abilities by summoning some dragon or other. Willow thanked them and Danny stopped haunting.

"Th-that was," Danny gasped, laughing, "s-so _funny_!"

Willow steered him away from a garbage can with an amused grin. "How did you get their statue to move like that?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"I possessed it," the boy replied, getting some control over his breathing, though he still chuckled.

The witch raised an eyebrow. "You can do that?"

"Yeah. It's a lot easier than overshadowing somebody."

Willow let him laugh for a bit longer before asking him, "Did you hear what they said?"

"About what?"

"A new coven of high-schoolers."

"Sort of. I was more focused on freaking them out so they'd talk," he said as he chuckled again. Then he paused as his breath came out as blue mist. He started looking around cautiously.

"What was that?" Willow asked, looking around too, slightly unnerved by the abrupt attitude change.

"My ghosts sense," Danny answered absently, trying to find someplace he could go ghost. "It lets me know when ghosts are near."

"That's helpful," she commented as Danny found an empty alley with several trashcans to hide behind.

"Yep," he said as he ducked behind the cover and gave his signature battle cry before the rings passed over him.

Willow watched from the mouth of the alley as he flew straight up and looked around, obviously searching for where the ghost might be.

"What if the ghost is hiding?" she called up after a moment.

Danny shook his head. "It's just not in sight. I'd think it was Boxy or the Lunch Lady, except that I have Boxy," here he pulled out his thermos and shook it, "and if it was the Lunch Lady, people would be running screaming from the huge meat monster. I'd go through the list of the others, but most of them cause panic. Actually," he said after a pause as he floated back down, "there _is_ the possibility of it being Kitty or Johnny 13. They don't typically cause chaos."

"Well, well Daniel," a cold voice said. "Surely you give me more credit than that?"

Danny gasped and turned around in time to see his arch nemesis appear out of the air above and behind him.

"Danny?" Willow asked.

"Plasmius," the young halfa growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the vampiric-looking halfa answered. "I'm here for you, dear boy."

"Get lost, Vlad," Danny said crossly, crossing his arms defiantly. "I'm not going anywhere with you and I'm not going to leave my family for you."

Willow raised an eyebrow at that. Then she remembered something from yesterday. At the Magic Box, when he was online with his friend, she remembered seeing a warning about Plasmius:

_**FriarTuck: before you get off, Plasmius is hunting Phantom**_

_**Phantom: …thanks.**_

Danny was in trouble. And Willow had no idea of how to help him.

The rest of the Scoobie gang were diligently studying and running the shop. It had been a few hours since Willow and Danny left and they hadn't made much progress.

In fact, as they went through the books they had on summoning and dragons, Giles said that these were only a fraction of the known dragons. To find out about any more, they'd have to get into some risky magic that they needed Willow for.

That they also needed her to prevent the summoning was on all of their minds. The group really hoped that they wouldn't have to ask her to do that, though they knew she would if she had to. The problem would be if she'd be able to do both spells within the timeframe they were operating in, which was let's-hurry-and-get-it-taken-care-of-because-with-our-luck-it-will-be-sooner-rather-than-later.

Giles had just found a summon prevention spell when the phone rang.

"Xander," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"I got it," the young man stood and reached the phone before Anya finished with her current customers. "This is the Magic Box-" he started.

"Danny's fighting Plasmius," Willow interrupted. "I need something to help him."

"What? Danny's fighting who?"

Giles and Dawn looked at Xander when he said that.

"Plasmius. Remember yesterday when he was on my laptop? Danny's friend said that Plasmius was hunting Phantom. Ask Giles if there's a spell I can use to help."

"Giles," Xander turned and jumped when he saw the Watcher standing right behind him. "Here," he handed the phone over.

"I need a spell to get rid of Plasmius," Willow said.

"Well," Giles rubbed his eyes as he thought about what he could offer.

"Give me that," Anya took the phone and spoke into the mouthpiece. "Just do a banishment charm," she said. "I can send Xander over with some Blood Blossoms, otherwise just do a basic chant."

Willow was startled. "Thanks Anya. I'm near the Bronze. Tell him to hurry." Then she hung up.

"Xander, take these," Anya thrust a bundle of flowers at him, "to the Bronze. Willow needs them." She then turned to take care of the next customer while Xander wasted a moment staring at the ex-demon before running out the door.


	17. Chapter 17

**First, I am sooooo sorry for taking so long to update. A small part of that was me being lazy, but most of it was because I'm busy moving. I have done so much cleaning that when I get on, I don't want to update. So, to make up for that, and because I don't think I'll be able to update next week, I'm going to give you the last two already written chapters. I'll do my best to update again as soon as I finish chapter 19. Please try to be patient, I haven't done much for shoving my own stuff into boxes and I have to help clean that house up too.**

**Now, reviews:**

**CSIalchemist: Okay, Vlad is here because he's looking for Danny. Remember chapter eleven, Tucker told Danny that Plasmius was looking for Phantom? It was when he was on the computer. And who said Dora was going to be a part of this? *shrug* Danny wasn't in the way, so I don't have to worry about it.**

**Zii Raevyn: *evil grin* Since when do fanfic writers like to make things easy for Vlad in situations like these?**

**Mak8907: ...evil apprentice/son remember? He's completely oblivious to the fact that their answers won't change no matter how sugar coated the option is.**

**ChopSuzi: Thanks. :)**

**ethiopian1987: Thank you. I miss him a lot.**

**LuNa: *evil grin* How does him landing in a dimension full of demons immune to ectoplasm sound to you?**

**...**

Danny was bleeding ectoplasm and holding his side gingerly when he saw Xander running to the Bronze.

"Well, Daniel," Vlad said, bringing his attention back to the matter at hand. "This doesn't have to hurt. Just renounce your idiot father and join me."

Danny glared at the older halfa and spit some ectoplasm out of his mouth before replying. "Never gonna happen. Go get a cat, you crazy fruitloop."

Vlad growled and shot yet another ecto-blast at the exhausted boy.

**(…)**

"Here," Xander puffed when he saw the state Danny was in, shoving the small bundle of flowers into Willow's hands.

"Thanks," she answered absently as she began the incantation.

Xander watched anxiously as Danny taunted Plasmius, causing the other ghost to fire pink energy at him.

**(…)**

Danny was too tired to dodge the blast and caught in on his injured ribs. He screamed as he fell, clutching his side. He heard something, as he fell, something soft. He figured it was the air rushing by his ears and promptly ignored it, trying in vain to gain control of his fall before he hit the ground.

Unfortunately, he couldn't fly. Fortunately, he could slow his fall so the inevitable crash hurt less.

He braced himself for the pain, going limp, and was pleasantly surprised to have a much softer landing than anticipated. He also heard a "oof" as he collided with whatever it was that intercepted his fall.

Danny looked up and saw something shoot at Vlad. Plasmius screamed as it hit him and he began to fade out. Not slowly turning invisible or when he pretended to be vanquished at the college reunion, but really, literally fading out of existence. His jaw dropped.

"You know, you're actually really light."

Danny started and held his side as pain flared before turning to see Xander. When he'd seen the younger boy falling, he'd run interception.

"Thank you?" Danny replied carefully.

"Are you alright?" Willow came up to them, a worried look on her face.

"Yeah," Danny move to get off Xander only for Willow to push him back.

"No you're not," she said, seeing his wounds up close.

"I'll _be_ fine, then," Danny huffed and crossed his arms carefully, mindful of his ribs. "I've gone to school after getting worse."

"I don't care if you've gone to school with broken legs," Willow said sternly. "We are going to properly wrap your injuries and Xander is going to carry you to the Magic Box."

Both males looked at her in shock.

"But, I can walk fine on my own!"

"I might hurt him more!"

Danny turned to give Xander a look. "I've been shoved in my locker after getting worse. A little jostling won't hurt."

"Good, Xander, go see if the Bronze has any gauze we can use," Willow said.

Danny fumed and floated off of Xander so he could get the gauze while Willow kept careful eyes on the halfa.

**(…)**

They arrived at the Magic Box about thirty minutes later, with Xander carrying a protesting human Danny.

"I'm _fine_," he was saying as Willow opened the door for Xander. "I can walk. My legs aren't broken."

Everyone in the store looked up as they entered, confused. Thankfully, there were no customers there right then.

"Are you sure?" Giles asked, as Xander put the upset boy in a chair. "It sounded like a war zone when Willow called earlier."

"I heal fast," Danny grumped. "And I've been to school after getting worse."

"How much worse?" Dawn asked.

The adults shook their heads and Danny answered. "Sprained ankle, concussion, bruised ribs, slashes three inches long and one deep, and recovering from electrocution. I was shoved into my locker, too."

The others stared at him.

"Electrocution…?" Giles managed.

Danny grinned smugly. "Three times, that fight alone. I think. Maybe five. They're all sort of jumbled together."

"How does something like that blur together?" Anya asked.

"How can you talk lightly of being electrocuted?" Willow asked at the same time.

Danny raised an eyebrow and answered both questions at once. "Skulker, Walker's goons, and Plasmius electrocute me. In that order, most often to least often."

"Wow," Dawn muttered.

Danny shrugged. "So what have you guys got for the dragon summoning thing?" he asked.

"What?" Everyone was surprised by the abrupt turn of conversation.

"The dragon summoning thing," Danny repeated. "I helped Willow figure out who was doing it, she can tell you about it better than I can, though."

"R-right," Giles stuttered, still off kilter with Danny's easy admission of injuries and electrocutions. "What did you find, Willow?"

"Well, it took a while, but with Danny's help, we were able to figure out that it's a new coven of high schoolers," Willow began.

And with that, everyone was distracted from Danny, who made his way into the back room for a nap to recover faster.

**Have you noticed in the cartoon that after a big fight, the worst he does is limp, if that? No matter how badly he was injured, or how much he was thrown around? Then he takes a nap to recover his energy.**


	18. Chapter 18

**This is part of a double update. If you are a person who only checks out the last updated chapter, go back one, you're missing something.**

**This is a filler chapter, to get from the previous point to the next one. People might be OOC and I apologize.**

Two hours later, Buffy joined them.

"Hey, where's Danny?" she asked, looking around.

"He's right…" Dawn trailed off, looking at the empty seat Danny had been set in two hours ago.

"I'll look in the back," Xander said, getting up from the table.

The others nodded absently and Giles went to check the basement. Buffy was about to go out the door with Willow when they heard Xander laugh.

Sharing a confused look, they went to the back room and saw Xander laughing at Danny, who was using a discarded dummy as a pillow.

Willow frowned when she realized he was lying on the side he had been holding carefully after the fight with Plasmius. "DANNY!" she cried.

The sleeping halfa jack-knifed upright and collided headfirst with Xander, who had been leaning down to shake him awake. They both recoiled and held their heads.

"Ow," Danny groaned. "What was that for?"

"You broke your ribs," she scolded, "Not to mention that gash. You won't heal if you lay on your injuries."

Danny looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Ghost fighting injuries don't carry over when I change," he explained. "I just need to rest to recover energy."

Willow just glared at him. He sighed and transformed. The bandages Willow had wrapped around his chest were still there. Danny was surprised, but turned them intangible and took them off. Beneath, his suit was just the way it had always been, black with white boots, gloves, belt, collar, and insignia. No tears or holes anywhere.

Xander and Willow gasped in surprise, while the others stared.

"See," Danny said, moving his arms and twisting sharply at his waist, purposely stretching his previously injured side and ignoring their sympathetic wincing. "I'm fine. Sleeping helps me recover energy. Especially after a fight where I get hurt. I'm fine after I take a nap. Which usually ends up with me in detention."

"That," Buffy said after Danny changed back, "is helpful."

Danny snorted. "You have no idea. If I came home past curfew with still bleeding injuries and broken bones _and_ swaying on my feet, I'd be more then grounded. Or if I came back to class with the latest gash from Skulker visible on my arm. Yeah, injuries not carrying over is nice. I don't get scars, either, so I don't have to answer awkward questions during summer when we go to the pool."

They all stared at him.

"What?" he said, irritated. "I _am_ a teenager. I'm supposed to do teenager things like that."

"I wish I could have done that," Buffy sighed. "I moved here hoping to get away from Slaying and I ended up full-timing it."

Danny shrugged. "Well, ghost hunting actually doesn't require research. Except for Fright Knight. And knowing about Pariah Dark was sorta helpful. But the most time consuming thing about it is fighting whoever it is long enough to suck them into the Thermos."

"And how does that work?" Giles asked, puzzled.

The young halfa just grinned. "I keep out reach of my parents weapons. I hide the Ghost Gabber and the Ghost Finder. I run back to class as fast as I can. I try to make it home for curfew. I have Tucker to do the tech and computer stuff. Sam is into dark stuff, so she knows about things like the Fright Knight. Jazz keeps me sane. Sort of. When she's being my psychiatrist instead of my sister. And she helps with our parents' inventions."

"So you don't do any book work?" Dawn asks, looking for an excuse to not have to do it so much, even though it's all she's allowed to do to help.

Danny raised an eyebrow again, sensing her purpose. "I never have time. I'm lucky if I have time to finish my homework and get a full night's sleep. I'm too busy catching ghosts at all hours. Yesterday was the first time I've gotten through a school day without an interruption. Unfortunately, I don't think I understood any of that to actually do my homework."

Dawn's shoulders slumped.

"Don't be upset, Dawn," Danny said, realizing exactly what she really wanted to do. "My sister, once she sort of told me that she knew (long story, don't ask), she tried to help with ghost hunting. You want to know how that ended? With me in the Thermos. Four times. After being sort of kidnapped, she realized that helping me that much in that area wasn't really helping. She decided to play interference instead. She mostly comes up with excuses for me and keeps our parents' inventions in the basement or the weapons vault. Sometimes, she keeps the Gabber and Finder in her room."

"You have a weapons vault?" Xander asked.

"Yes, my parents invent weapons to hunt ghosts. There are way too many for them to keep everything in the lab. But Jazz _does_ help with the fighting sometimes with the Fenton Peeler, since it's not a gun, and we don't need to worry about her aim."

"But-"

"My parents taught us both how to use everything in the house that they invented, from the weapons to the Ops Center. They also don't care what people think of them and wear jumpsuits. All the time."

"So the moral of the story is…?" Xander asked.

Danny grinned. "Be happy with what you got. Fentons can't be normal. It's genetically impossible, according to my friends. You guys," the halfa gestured at Dawn and Buffy, "may not exactly be normal, but you have a _way_ better chance than a Fenton."

"What do you mean by that?" Willow asked.

"I was the only normal Fenton for most of my life. I wanted to be an astronaut and I got average grades in school. My sister was obsessed with perfect grades, and still is, but at least she cuts me some slack. Then came the portal. Now, I am the least normal Fenton, but at least I have a secret identity so I don't end up on a dissection table surrounded by Guys in White operatives who don't care about how much pain their 'subject' is in while they discuss how to best go about it without getting their suit dirty."

The Scoobies just stared at him. Danny shrugged. "They aren't very good, but if I couldn't hide as a human, I would have been exhausted and captured a _long_ time ago. Now, what about that dragon summoning?"

Everyone started as they realized that they'd been wasting time. They went back into the store so everyone could sit and laid out the battle plan.

**I'll respond to both chapters' reviews when I update next.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Alright, sorry for taking so long. We're taking a vacation from working on the house, so I have plenty of time to do this now.**

**Ch. 17:**

**ChopSuzi: (grin) so glad you noticed**

**Ch. 18:**

**seantrina: lol**

**ChopSuzi: Why else do you think I wrote it like that? How dare you try not to laugh. ;p**

**ethiopian1987: I don't like making up rules that go against the show. So, I used my observational skills and went with it.**

**JoWashington: Don't worry about it. If I start something, I'll finish it. I have this promise on my page.**

**Thanks for keeping up with me despite seeming to forget about you guys. There is one more chapter after this, so I'm keeping up with my twenty chapters that I thought I'd have when I first started to post.**

**(...)**

"Why am I doing this again?"

Danny was with the Scoobies, hiding behind a conveniently located wall to go over the plan one more time before executing it.

"We just need you to keep an eye on everything and let us know if something goes wrong or if someone needs help."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I got that much. I meant, why am I backup?"

"You are only fourteen," Giles said.

"I'm stronger than all of you. Except maybe Buffy," Danny replied. "I heal faster than you. I have ghost powers. I can take more hits than you."

"While you have powers," Willow said, "you are still fourteen. And you got hurt pretty bad earlier."

"What part of I've had worse and I heal fast did you guys miss," Danny grumbled, crossing his arms.

"We could have left you home with Dawn," Buffy pointed out.

"And I would have followed you here anyway," he retorted.

"Look," Xander jumped in. "We don't know how bad this is going to get. We hope it won't get bad enough that we have to fight a dragon. But just in case, you are here and you can help us make sure it doesn't get too bad. Alright?"

Danny looked at Xander intently before saying, "You're just saying that to make me feel better, aren't you?"

Xander grinned. "Is it working?"

The younger boy sighed and allowed a small smile to come to his face. "Yes."

"Then let's go."

**(…)**

The plan was simple: talk to the girls and tell them that what they were doing was a really, _really_ bad idea. Failing that, which was practically guaranteed, they were going to have Willow prevent or reverse the spell while they kept the girls busy.

Plan C: fight the dragon and shove it back through the portal before it closed.

All bases covered.

So they entered the building carefully.

"Why do all the weird things happen at school?" Danny whispered. "It's even creepier after hours."

Yes, it was the school building.

"Because it's on top of the Hellmouth," Xander answered.

"That's here," Danny retorted. "What about in Amity Park?"

Xander shrugged. "You'd have to ask Giles if you want the magical mumbo jumbo. Is there a common theme with what happens?"

"Yeah. I get up, shove Boxy in the Thermos, run to school, another ghost, late to class, and random attacks throughout the day that land me in detention. Then more attacks while I'm supposed to be _in_ detention, causing me to skip and get _more_ detention that I may or may not get around to going to."

The older guy raised an eyebrow. "Did you ever stop to think that they're after you for some reason?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "No, really?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his words. "I never thought that that was why Skulker booby-trapped my locker, milk carton for lunch, or gym locker. Or why Spectra got everybody in school infected with a ghost mosquito that gave everybody ghost powers. Or why Walker and his goons over shadowed my classmates and teachers. Or why the Lunch Lady shows up. Or Technus. Or why Plasmius makes my life so much harder. No, I never guessed that they were out to get me."

"That's a lot of sarcasm."

"You have no idea."

**(…)**

Buffy, Willow and Giles were going straight to where the girls were, while Danny and Xander were double checking that nothing else was happening. Really, they were keeping Danny out of the fight for as long as possible because he was still a kid, while they took care of the problem.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to send Xander with Danny?" Willow asked.

"No," Buffy sighed. "But how else were we going to keep him out of the way?"

"You could have just brought him with us," Giles suggested.

"He's fourteen!" Buffy protested. "He should be in school, worrying about popularity and grades, not the fate of the world."

"While that is true, weren't you involved in your duties as the Slayer while in school?" Giles asked. "And from what he's told us so far, he has dealt with many, somewhat similar, things as you have."

"It's my job," Buffy replied, stubbornly set. "Not his."

Giles sighed. "He is not just a child, Buffy," he said. "He is also a ghost, and ghosts have obsessions. His might just be protecting people and you could be getting in the way of that."

Before Buffy could form a reply, they saw light coming from behind a closed door. It was time to get to work. She'd worry about Danny later.

**(…)**

A rush of energy blew through the school, causing Xander to shiver. The calmly talk it out plan must have failed. They must be on plan B now.

Xander turned to Danny to ask him something but stopped before the words left his mouth.

Danny was shivering and staring ahead, a frown on his face.

Xander put a hand on his shoulder. "Danny, are you-"

He didn't even finish his sentence before he saw a blue mist come from the halfa's mouth and there was a blinding flash and a faint glow lit the hall. Xander didn't even clear the spots from his eyes before Danny grabbed him by the shoulders and dived through the floor before plowing straight through the walls like they weren't even there, a determined look on his face.

Apparently plan B had failed too, and somehow Danny knew it.


	20. Chapter 20

**JoWashington: Thanks for your enthusiasm. :) Here's the last of it. Hope you like it.  
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**Mak8907: :P  
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**The Alien of Pluto: No, you aren't the first to ask if it's Dora. Thanks for reviewing.  
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**...  
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**Thanks for keeping up with me despite abandoning you for a while to move. Here's the last chapter, I hope it lives up to your expectations.**

**(...)  
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Danny felt a rush of energy come from where Buffy, Giles, and Willow had gone. It felt weird, sort of like when his ghost sense went off, but deeper. It was almost like he was sensing a ghost portal. While he was trying to figure out what that meant, his ghost sense went off. He transformed without a second thought and grabbed Xander before diving through the floor and following this new gut feeling.

He stopped when he saw Buffy, Willow, and Giles in a room with four teen girls standing in a rough circle around a portal that had swirls of green starting from the center and whirling slowly outward.

"Danny!" Willow exclaimed when she saw him holding Xander a couple of feet above the floor. "What are you doing here?"

Danny didn't answer, instead staring at the portal as the green swirls reached the edge and an angry roar tore through, making it impossible to hear any possible reply.

Xander looked up at the boy holding him to see that his attention was solely on the opening portal. He reached up and waved his hand in front of the halfa's face.

The boy started and glanced down at his load. "Sorry," he muttered, setting Xander down as his eyes were dragged back to the portal. Whatever was coming through that portal had set off his ghost sense. He knew that the others wouldn't be able to fight it and it probably wouldn't be very happy with the girls that summoned it either. So, he was making sure that it wouldn't get past him by not taking his eyes off the portal.

His attention was so fixed, that he nearly got hit and dragged off by one of the summoners. Fortunately for him, Buffy and her crew were aware of their surroundings and dragged the girls out of the room.

Unfortunately for them, when Buffy tried to grab him to drag him out of harm's way, he went intangible.

Danny looked down at her. "You can't fight whatever's coming out of there. It set off my ghost sense when I was with Xander, practically on the other side of the school."

Buffy opened her mouth to argue, but Danny wouldn't let her.

"I'm not saying you can't because you aren't strong enough, or whatever," Danny said, "You just don't have the equipment. Take the girls out and keep them safe. You can't fight every battle." Danny grinned. "I sure haven't fought every ghost every time they came to Amity. If I did, I would be a nervous wreck."

Buffy's eyes widened as she looked over his shoulder. "Look out!" she cried.

Danny looked over his shoulder and saw a light blue dragon finish emerging from the portal, looking furiously pissed off and literally spitting fire. He quickly put a hand on her shoulder and turned them both intangible.

As soon as the fire stopped Danny let go and flew towards the dragon, fists green with energy, ready to fire… only to stop half way to his target.

The room was completely silent as boy and dragon took each other in for several moments.

"Dora?" Danny finally asked, breaking the silence and letting his ecto-blasts die, causing Buffy give him a weird look. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still having troubles with Aragon."

"Well," the dragon spoke, "I was summoned here. Right in the middle of dealing with him, too." She cocked her head to the side. "What are you doing here, Sir Phantom? I don't believe this is Amity Park."

Danny laughed. "It's not. Welcome to Sunnydale, home of the hellmouth, according to my new friends." He gestured at Buffy who was still looking at him as if he'd grown another head and was happily rhyming with himself.

Dora looked over at Buffy and gave her a once over. "You are a friend of Sir Phantom?" she asked. One of Buffy's eyebrows rose at the title, but she nodded anyway. "Then it is a pleasure to meet you. I just wi-" she broke off at a look from Danny and smiled. "If only out meet was under different circumstances," the dragon amended as she became smaller.

Danny laughed. "Yeah, but I haven't made any friends the normal way since the Fenton Portal opened."

Dora shook her head as she finished becoming 'human'. "How did you end up here, anyway?"

"I was patrolling the Zone. Then I came across this portal that sucked me in and spit me out here. I figured that since I was here I might as well make sure no ghosts were bothering anyone. By the time I got back, Buffy's friend Willow," he gestured at Buffy when he said her name, "was closing the portal I'd come through."

"Would you like to come back through with me, then?" Dora asked.

Danny looked at Buffy and hesitated.

Buffy smiled. "You said your last name was Fenton, right?" Danny nodded. "Willow can find you. She's a computer mastermind."

"Don't let her meet Tucker," Danny cracked. "Otherwise, we might not be able to tear them apart."

"Besides, I promised Dawn a chance to go visit a ghost town if we ever got the chance."

Danny's grin split his face in half. "Awesome!" he exclaimed. "Just remember when you visit, don't come to my house unprepared and don't link Danny _Fenton_ with Danny _Phantom_."

He flew up and hugged her before going to the portal with Dora. He turned back and called out, "Say good bye to everybody for me, will you? I'm already late enough as it is and I missed a day of school," before stepping back and waving.

Buffy waved back and watched as the portal disappeared. Then she turned around and took in the room, before going after her friends. She had some messages to pass on and a room to clean before she could go home to sleep.


End file.
